PALLEKELE: In a big relief to all the stakeholders including fans and broadcasters, the Asian Cricket Council has decided not to move the Super Four stage of the 2023 Asia Cup out of Colombo. The ACC along with co-host Sri Lanka Cricket and other participating nations was mulling over a move to shift the tournament out of Colombo due to heavy rains in the city.
As many as five Super Four matches are scheduled to be held in Colombo from September 9 to 15 apart from the final two days later.
A few alternate venues including Dambulla and Hambantota also came up for discussion but the former was rejected as the visiting West Indies U-19 team is scheduled to play a four-day match at the venue from September 5 to 8. Their next four-day match starts at the same venue on September 12. They reached Sri Lanka last month and had already played three 50-over-day matches.
Hambantota was an option but the distance between hotels and the ground might have worked against it.
An SLC source on Monday told TNIE, "At present effort is on to make the original schedule work. Anyway, there are still four days left for the first match in Colombo. Both Colombo and Pallekele are still options along with Hambantota. Today the rain has subsided in Colombo which is good news."
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Indian team has left Kandy on Tuesday for Colombo. They play their first Super Four match against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 10.
Sources said that the decision to keep the tournament in Colombo was taken as a few teams including India were not willing to play a leg of the event in Hambantota. Even Sri Lanka preferred to play in Colombo.
While sources confirmed the decision, there was no official statement on it from the ACC, which in fact never spoke on the proposed move of shifting the event out of Colombo.
Among the cricket boards involved, SLC must be quite relieved as it has suspended all board-run domestic tournaments in the country apparently to restructure it last Friday. The decision meant most venues were not ready to host the Asia Cup at such short notice.
Sri Lanka hosted the Lanka Premier League from July 30 to August 20, wherein 24 matches including 20 league and 4 playoff matches were played among five teams but all games were played either at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, and Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele.