Dhaka: The upcoming edition of the U-19 Asia Cup, had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, the tournament was scheduled to be held in November in the UAE, where currently the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is going on, a Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official said on Tuesday (October 13).
According to the report, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) had urged member of the boards to suggest their thoughts about playing the tournament before finalising the postponement date of the game to 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic.
The news has been confirmed by BCB’s game development manager AEM Kawsar. Presently, BCB game development had set up a new U-19 team before being informed by the ACC about the decision.
“The Under-19 Asia Cup (that was expected to be played in November 2020) has been postponed and will be played in 2021,” Kawsar told Cricbuzz. “ACC is looking for a suitable date to host the tournament next year,” he added.
A sum total of eight teams were expected to take part in the tournament that included India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan along with host United Arab Emirates and two qualifying teams.
Last year, the previous edition of the U-19 Asia Cup was held in Sri Lanka with a total of eight teams participating in it. India had secured the victory on that year’s tournament after beating Bangladesh in the final.
Earlier this year, the ACC had also rescheduled the senior teams’ Asia Cup which was to be held in September 2020. The ACC has also said that it was looking at a window in June 2021 to host the tournament as it was postponed due to the pandemic situation of this year.
