The 2023 Asia Cup (also known as Super 11 Asia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the 16th edition of the Asia Cup, with the matches to be played as One Day Internationals (ODIs) and is jointly hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The tournament is being contested by 6 teams. It is being held from 30 August to 17 September 2023. Sri Lanka are the defending champions. It is the first Asia Cup to be held in multiple countries, with four matches to be played in Pakistan and the remaining nine matches to played in Sri Lanka.
The five full members of the Asian Cricket Council are part of the tournament: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They are joined by Nepal, who qualified by winning the 2023 ACC Men’s Premier Cup. For the first time, the tournament will be held in a “hybrid format” with the games organised in two countries. All teams will play at least a few games in Pakistan, except for India, who refused to travel to Pakistan due to disapproval from the Indian Government. In January 2023, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced the pathway structure and calendar for 2023 and 2024, where they confirmed the dates and format of the tournament. Originally, the tournament was scheduled to take place in 2021, but was postponed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fixtures for the tournament were announced on 19 July 2023.
In June 2020, following a meeting with the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said they would be willing to let Sri Lanka host the 2020 Asia Cup, with India unwilling to travel to Pakistan. The ACC issued a press release following the meeting stating that “in light of the impact and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, possible locale options for the Asia Cup 2020 were discussed and it was decided to take the final decision in due course”. In July 2020, an official announcement of the postponement was made by the ACC. The 2020 edition was rescheduled to take place in Sri Lanka in June 2021.
In March 2021, the tournament was at risk of a further postponement after India qualified for the final of the World Test Championship, which clashed with the proposed dates in June. The tournament was postponed once again to 2023. In May 2021, the ACC announced that the 2021 tournament would be deferred to 2023, citing that it would be difficult to schedule the tournament due to the continued impact of COVID-19 on the scheduling of other cricket events. Pakistan was scheduled to host the 2022 Asia Cup after retaining the rights to host the 2022 edition. However, in October 2021, following a meeting with the ACC, Ramiz Raja confirmed that Pakistan would host the tournament in 2023, with Sri Lanka hosting the 2022 edition.
In October 2022, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary and ACC President Jay Shah announced that India would not travel to Pakistan, citing security concerns, and that the Asia Cup 2023 would take place in a neutral venue. In December 2022, the then PCB chairman Ramiz Raja said that Pakistan might consider pulling out of the tournament if their hosting rights were withdrawn because of India’s unwillingness to travel to Pakistan. However, in January 2023, ACC confirmed the teams and groups of the tournament, with both India and Pakistan taking part.
In March 2023, it was proposed that Pakistan remain as hosts and that all India matches – including at least two India-Pakistan contests – would be played at a neutral venue yet to be confirmed. The hybrid model proposed by Pakistan was rejected by Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In response, PCB Chairman Najam Sethi proposed two options. The first option was that India play all their matches at a neutral venue with Pakistan hosting the rest of the teams. The second option was that four matches in the group stage take place in Pakistan whereas the second phase, in which matches played by the Indian team followed by the next stage matches including the final, be played at a neutral venue. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh agreed to the second option.
On 15 June 2023, the Asian Cricket Council announced that the tournament would be organized in a hybrid model with four matches being held in Pakistan, and the remaining nine in Sri Lanka.
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