Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has all the rights to perform the Asia Cup tournaments. ACC is an Organisations who looks after the management and smooth conduct of tournaments under there Governance. It was founded and established in 1983.
It is played in both one day and T20 formats played in every alternative two year. The first edition was played in 1984 in UAE. The latest edition was played in 2018 and the next edition will be played in 2022 and hosted by Sri Lanka.
All the matched between the teams are conducted in round robin format. India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Afghanistan are the teams with take part under Asian Cricket Council.
The very first tournament of Asia Cup was played in 1984 in Sharjah UAE. In 1986 India boycott the Asia cup tournament due to unhealthy cricketing relation with Sri Lanka.
After that Pakistan boycotted the 1990-1991 series due to some political issues with India and also the 1993 series was also cancelled due to the same reason.
After these incidents Asian Cricket Council (ACC) decided to conduct the matches in every two years from 2009 series. The ICC also announced that all the tournament played in Asia Cup has the official One Day International status.
In the wake of investigating the scaling back standing of Asia Cup, the ICC concluded that from 2016 occasion the competition will be hung on revolution premise between One Day and T20 design.
The most successful team with total seven titles- six ODIs and one T20 is by team India. After India, Sri Lanka won five tournaments. Sri Lanka had played most of the Asia Cup tournaments- 14 tournaments whereas, India and Pakistan played 13 each.
Asia Cup: History
Asia Cup 1984 – 1988
In Sharjah, UAE first edition of Asia Cup earlier known as Rothmans played in the year 1984. In which India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan participated and played.
The tournament was played in round robin format. India successfully won the series and Pakistan could not win even a single match and Sri Lanka finish with the second spot in the series.
In 1986, Sri Lanka were the host in second series. Bangladesh participated for the first time. In the final Pakistan lose by host team sri lanka and sri lanka won the series.
1988, tournament was hosted by Bangladesh and it was their first multinational tournament which they hosted. India won its second Asia Cup series after beating Sri Lanka by six wickets.
Asia Cup 1990–1997
India hosted the fourth edition in 1990-91. Pakistan was pulled of the tournament due to political issue with India. Sri Lanka lost the final and series defeated by India.
In 1993, the tournament was cancelled due to political issue between India and Pakistan. 1995 tournament was held in Sharjah, UAE. It was the third successive win for India.
The sixth edition was played in 1997. 1997 Asia Cup tournament was hosted by sri lanka and sri lanka beat India and seal win the Asia Cup by 8 wickets. It was Sri Lanka’s second Asia Cup.
Asia Cup 2000-2010
In 2000, seventh edition was played in Bangladesh. India lost the match earlier, while Sri Lanka & Pakistan played the finals and Pakistan won the series.
The eight edition was played in Sri Lanka in 2004. In this tournament Hong Kong and UAE also participated. The group stages were made. In group A- India, Sri Lanka and UAE. Whereas in group B- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Hong Kong.
In the earlier group stage tournament UAE and Hong Kong lost their journey further. In the last sri lanka and India manage to finish with top spot and went for final. Sri Lanka won the series by 25 runs. S. Jayasuriya was given the player of the tournament.
In 2009, the 9th edition was played in Pakistan. From group B India get qualified and from group A sri lanka get qualified for the final. Sri Lanka won the series after beating India in the finals.
In 2010, the 10th edition was hosted and played in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka and India topped the group. In finals India beat Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka won it for the fifth time.
Asia Cup 2012-2014
The eleventh edition of Asia Cup was played in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2012. India and Sri Lanka lost to Pakistan & Bangladesh and got qualified to for finals. Bangladesh lost the final and trophy by Pakistan and Pakistan won their Asia cup title second time.
Sachin Tendulkar scored his 100th century in this tournament. Shakib Al Hasan was the player of the tournament. In twelfth edition, which was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2014. Afghanistan also participated for the first time since 1984.
Sri Lanka won the match and defeated Pakistan by 5 wickets. Sri Lanka seal the series and won the Asia cup title for fifth time. L. Thirimanne was the player of the tournament.
Asia Cup 2016
Subsequent to investigating the scaling back standing of Asia Cup, the ICC concluded that from 2016 occasion the competition will be hung on revolution premise between One Day and T20 design. The first T20 format match of Asia Cup was held in 2016 in which total five teams participated, just ahead of the T20 world cup.
The 2016 edition was held and played at Bangladesh. The finals was played between India and Bangladesh and India won by eight wickets. Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed couple of boundaries and ended the tournament.
Shikhar Dhawan scored 60 runs and was Man of the match. Sabbir Rahman was the player of the series.
Asia Cup 2018
2018 tournament was to be held in India as stated by Anurag Thakur- BCCI Secretary. The competition was to be played in One day design. The competition was moved to United Arab Nation, because of the policy driven issues among India and Pakistan.
India won the series after beating Bangladesh by three wickets in the finals. India didn’t lose any match and won two matches each against Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Man of the series was Shikhar Dhawan who scored most 342 runs in the series of five matches.
Asia Cup: Results
| YEAR | WINNER | RUNNER-UP | HOST |
| 1984 | INDIA | SRI LANKA | UAE |
| 1986 | SRI LANKA | PAKISTAN | SRI LANKA |
| 1988 | INDIA | SRI LANKA | BANGLADESH |
| 1990-91 | INDIA | SRI LANKA | UAE |
| 1995 | INDIA | SRI LANKA | UAE |
| 1997 | SRI LANKA | INDIA | SRI LANKA |
| 2000 | PAKISTAN | SRI LANKA | BANGLADESH |
| 2004 | SRI LANKA | INDIA | SRI LANKA |
| 2008 | SRI LANKA | INDIA | PAKISTAN |
| 2010 | INDIA | SRI LANKA | SRI LANKA |
| 2012 | PAKISTAN | BANGLADESH | BANGLADESH |
| 2014 | SRI LANKA | PAKISTAN | BANGLADESH |
| 2016 | INDIA | BANGLADESH | BANGLADESH |
| 2018 | INDIA | BANGLADESH | UAE |
Most Tournament runs scored by – Sanath Jayasuriya 1220 runs. Lasith Malinga is the highest wicket taker holder with 33 wickets.
India won the most successful by seven titles along with the current title holder.
