The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah will attend an emergency meeting of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Saturday (February 4) to decide the fate of Pakistan's Asia Cup 2023 hosting rights. The emergency ACC meeting which has been called by Pakistan Cricke Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi, will be held in Bahrain.
ACC president Jay Shah earlier stated that the 2023 Asia Cup will not be hosted in Pakistan and will be played at a neutral venue.
Meanwhile, Qatar has also shown interest in staging the tournament as a neutral venue amidst political tensions between the neighbouring countries. It has already hosted a few cricket tournaments and franchise-based cricket leagues.
"Jay is in Bahrain for the ACC meeting. The BCCI's stand will not change. We will not be travelling to Pakistan as we haven't got any go-ahead from the government," source said.
The PCB and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will face off in Bahrain over their disagreement surrounding the ACC calendar of events announcement made by the ACC president and Indian board secretary Jay Shah, which the PCB claims was made "unilaterally" without consulting the Pakistan board.
The calendar was unveiled by ACC president Jay Shah on January 5.
"For some time there hasn't been any ACC Board meeting and there were a lot of decisions being made and one of them we have challenged. Now the good news is that we managed to convince them to have their Board meeting and I will be attending it," Sethi said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
The recent bomb blasts in Peshawar has again raised security concerns about holding cricket tournaments in Pakistan.
In December last year, ACC chairman Shah had released the itinerary of the continental body and the venue of Asia Cup wasn't mentioned.
This led to Sethi accusing Shah of taking "unilateral decision", an allegation that ACC officially refuted stating that repeated emails to PCB seeking recommendations on the itinerary went unanswered.
In October last year, Shah, who is also the supremo of ACC, had officially told the media that India will not travel to Pakistan.
The erstwhile PCB chief Ramiz Raja had back then threatened that Pakistan will not travel to India for this year's 50 over World Cup.
