Asia Cup

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Not to be confused with the football Asian Cup

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 four times, the most amongst the competing asian countries.

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

1 First edition: 1984
2 Second edition: 1986
3 Third edition: 1988
4 Fourth edition: 1990/91
5 Fifth edition: 1995
6 Sixth edition: 1997
7 Seventh edition: 2000
8 Eighth edition: 2004
9 Ninth edition: 2008
10 See also
11 References
12 Further references and notes

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. Mohsin Khan faced the first ball of the tournament. The final was played between India and Pakistan and the cup was lifted by India.

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.

The third edition was held in Bangladesh and won by India defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

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.

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.

For the fourth consecutive time, it was India and Sri Lanka in the final but this time a confident Sri Lanka beat India easily.

See also: 2000 Asia Cup

The 2000 Asia Cup was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh and won by Pakistan defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

See also: 2004 Asia Cup

The eighth edition of Asia Cup was held in Sri Lanka after a gap of 4 years. Sri Lanka beat India to win the cup.

See also: 2008 Asia Cup

The ninth edition of the Asia Cup will be held in Pakistan in April 2008. The format sees two groups of three sides, where each side in each group plays each other once. The top two teams in each group play in knock-out semi-finals, with a one-off final to follow.

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

Group B consists of India, Oman and Pakistan.