Asia Cup

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Not to be confused with the football Asian Cup

Asia Cup

Administrator(s)	Asian Cricket Council
Cricket format	One Day International
First tournament	1984
Tournament format(s)	multiple (refer to article)
Current champion	Sri Lanka
Most successful	India (4 titles)

The Asia Cup is an international cricket tournament. It was conceived in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was created as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries. It was originally scheduled to be held every two years. The first edition was held in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE where the council's offices were based (until 1995). The International Cricket Council has ruled that all games played for the Asia Cup have official One Day International status. Indian cricket team has lifted the Asia cup the most times (4) and appeared in every final apart from the 1986 and 2000 cup, which India boycotted due to soured relations with host nations Sri Lanka.

The ACC have announced that the tournament will be held biennially from 2008 onwards.^[1]

1 First edition: 1984
2 Second edition: 1986
3 Fourth edition: 1990/91
4 Fifth edition: 1995
5 Ninth edition: 2008
6 Champions
7 See also
8 References
9 Further references and notes
10 External Links

[edit] First edition: 1984

Main article: 1984 Asia Cup

The first edition of the Asia Cup was held in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE, the location of the headquarters of the newly formed Asian Cricket Council. The first match was Pakistan vs the new ICC member Sri Lanka. The tournament was a round-robin tournament; India won both its matches, winning the inaugural Cup. Sri Lanka came in second while Pakistan lost both its matches.

[edit] Second edition: 1986

Main article: 1986 Asia Cup

The second edition was held in Sri Lanka, the first multi-national cricket series to be held there. India had pulled out of the tournament due to soured relations with Sri Lanka after a controversial series in Sri Lanka the previous year in which the umpires allegedly made wrong decisions to favour the home side leading to Sri Lanka winning their first ever Test match. Sri Lanka lifted the cup beating Pakistan.

[edit] Fourth edition: 1990/91

Main article: 1990-91 Asia Cup

The fourth edition was held in India. Pakistan had pulled out of the tournament which helped India retain its hold on the Cup defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

[edit] Fifth edition: 1995

Main article: 1995 Asia Cup

The fifth edition took the series back to Sharjah after 11 years. India and Sri Lanka made it to the final by virtue of better runrate than Pakistan as all three teams had equal points after preliminary round. For the third successive time in the Asia Cup, India defeated Sri Lanka in the final.

[edit] Ninth edition: 2008

This article or section contains information about a future sporting event or team.
It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change as the event approaches and more information becomes available.

See also: 2008 Asia Cup

The ninth edition of the Asia Cup will be held in Pakistan in June 2008. The format sees two groups of three sides, where each side in each group plays each other once. Tourney starts from June 24, 2008 and will end up on July 6th, 2008. The three sides in each group play each other once, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the second phase, where they will again play each other once. The top two teams will contest the final. Karachi will host 10 of the 13 matches, while Lahore will host three and all matches will be day-night affairs, starting late in the afternoon.

Group A consists of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.

Group B consists of Pakistan, Hong Kong and India.

[edit] Champions

Year	Host	Champion	Runner-Up
1984	UAE	India	Sri Lanka
1986	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	Pakistan
1988	Bangladesh	India	Sri Lanka
1990-91	India	India	Sri Lanka
1993	Pakistan	Cancelled
1995	UAE	India	Sri Lanka
1997	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	India
2000	Bangladesh	Pakistan	Sri Lanka
2004	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	India
2008	Pakistan