After weeks of conjecture and drama, major logistics around 2025 Asia Cup has been resolved. As mentioned unofficially recently, UAE has been declared as the official hosts of the tournament. With the T20 World Cup slated in early 2026, this edition of the Asia Cup will be in T20 format and shall begin on September 9 with the final to be held on September 28.
The details were revealed by Mohsin Naqvi, Chairman of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Naqvi took to the social media platform X to make the revelations regarding the Asia Cup.
I am delighted to confirm the dates of the ACC Men’s Asia Cup 2025 in UAE. The prestigious tournament will take place from September 9th to 28th. We look to a spectacular display of cricket. Details schedule will be out soon,” Naqvi posted.
The major talking point of the schedule will be the marquee India-Pakistan clash with the arch-rivals set to play each other twice in the league stage and if they make it that far, the final as well. It has to be noted that since the Pahalgam attack in April, the prospect of an India-Pakistan clash in the near future seemed improbable.
Technically, India are the hosts of the tournament but the increasing India-Pakistan cross-border tensions have seen both countries deciding not to play cricket in each other’s den. This consensus was reached at one of ICC’s general body meetings earlier this year after the 2025 Champions Trophy where this topic became a hot debate. India, as has been the case since a long time, refused to tour Pakistan who were the official hosts of that tournament. Subsequently, Dubai served as the neutral venue for India games and after the tournament, this created a huge stir in the cricketing world.
In the ICC meeting that followed, it was mutually discussed that India and Pakistan wouldn’t travel to each other’s country for cricketing purposes. With the Women’s ODI World Cup slated in September 2025 and Men’s T20 World Cup in March 2026, both in India, such a call had to be taken for the betterment of the game.
However, off-field drama continued between India and Pakistan until last week with the venue of the ACC AGM being a bone of contention. While Pakistan wanted it to be held in Dhaka, India were strongly against it, as their political relations with Bangladesh have also been strained in recent times. It led to a situation wherein having the meeting in Dhaka would have meant a BCCI boycott of the meeting as well as the Asia Cup. If vice-versa were to happen, PCB had threatened to do the exact same thing.
Eventually, the meeting was indeed held in Dhaka with BCCI and SLC participating through a video conference.