The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced on Thursday that this year’s Asia Cup, scheduled to be held in Pakistan in September, has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, the ACC said that the executive board met on multiple occasions to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the tournament.

“From the onset, the board was keen on organising the tournament as per the original schedule. However, travel restrictions, country-specific quarantine requirements, fundamental health risks and social distancing mandates have posed as substantial challenges to holding the tournament.

“Above all, the risks related to the health and safety of participating players, support staff, commercial partners, fans and the cricketing community were deemed to be significant.”

It added that after carefully considering these factors, the board decided to postpone this year’s Asia Cup.

“Conducting the event in a responsible manner remains the ACC’s priority and the board is hopeful that the tournament will be held in 2021,” the statement said, adding that the council was hoping to stage the Twenty20 competition, which will feature six countries including India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in June next year

However, the statement clarified that Sri Lanka will now hold the rescheduled event while Pakistan will play host in 2022.

“The hosts for the Asia Cup 2020, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), exchanged hosting rights with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). Through this arrangement SLC will host the rescheduled event expected in June 2021 while the PCB will host the Asia Cup 2022.”