Asia Cup 2023: PCB lodges protest as ACC backtracks on venue change

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday, lodged a strong protest after Jay Shah — president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) unilaterally changed the match venue back to Colombo despite concerns over bad weather.

The PCB has called for an emergency meeting of the ACC to develop a consensus and address the confusion created due to back-and-forth decisions by Shah which have made the tournament a laughing stock.

The development comes as earlier the ACC president had agreed to change the match venue to Hambantota following reservations raised by PCB over bad weather conditions.

However, in an unexpected turn of events, Shah has unilaterally backtracked on the agreed venue change, shifting the match back to Colombo, sources told Geo News on Tuesday.

The Pakistan cricket authorities have also refused to accept this unilateral decision taken by a regional cricket body headed by Jay Shah.

Regarding back-to-back changes in venues, the administrators are in a fix as they have logistic arrangements to move to Hambantota but now they are told that the venue would remain unchanged.

Moreover, the players are also confused due to uncertain situations over venues.

It is important to note that due to the ACC president’s stubbornness, the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 has been engulfed in controversies for a long and nine out of 13 matches were scheduled in Sri Lanka after India refused to send its team to Pakistan.

And now, after two of the matches of the tournament were interrupted with the Pakistan vs India blockbuster being washed out, the PCB again suggested staging the remainder of the tournament in Pakistan.