Asia Cup: Then a multinational showpiece, now a mere prep event

By acting as a warmup to ICC meets, the Asia Cup has at least ensured continuity.
The Asia Cup will begin on Wednesday, with Pakistan taking on Nepal in Multan. The next day, Sri Lanka play Bangladesh almost 2,700 km away, in Pallekele, also the host of the India-Pakistan match on 2 September. 

Never before has the Asia Cup been co-hosted and for good reason as well, as it barely made sense for teams to crisscross the subcontinent for a tournament that hardly lasted 10 days in the 90s and early 2000s.

But with changing priorities, staging the Asia Cup is becoming more of a compulsion than a formality.

Its relevance was palpable in the 90s that coincided with the Asian block's rise within world cricket. Sharjah had emerged as the hottest summer destination around this time, staging the inaugural edition of the Asia Cup in 1984 that kicked off the ritual of hosting the annual CBFS fundraising tournaments. 

"For the first time, did the world see Indian and Pakistani supporters sitting together and enjoying a match," Asif Iqbal told Hindustan Times in an interview last year. 

But Sharjah didn't quite capture an all-encompassing Asian vibe because of the regular invites to non-Asian nations.

This was the time quandrangulars and triangular meets were still very much in vogue but only the Asia Cup lent a wider continental perspective by pitting three top teams in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka along with a string of upcoming sides - first Bangladesh, followed by Afghanistan, UAE and Hong Kong.

A largely biennial event, the Asia Cup's relevance however seemed to fade in the 2000s when India and Pakistan were extensively touring each other. That changed overnight when in the wake of the Mumbai attacks in 2008, the Asia Cup re-emerged as the only other platform for an India-Pakistan game apart from ICC events. And the tournament organisers too tried their best to leverage the situation.

With the ICC hosting an event almost every year, a continental showpiece is now redundant. And unlike Asian championships in other sports like hockey or football, cricket's Asia Cup never really provided insight or entry to the bigger stages. 

Bangladesh were runners-up in 2016, but they still had to qualify for the World T20 held in India a month later. Sri Lanka, similarly, won the Asia Cup in 2022 but had to go through the T20 World Cup qualifiers in Australia later in October. 

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) too isn't what it used to be 20 years ago, with the notion of an Asian bloc supporting en masse a particular member in ICC meetings clearly in tatters.

With the 2016 edition however, a format-switching flexibility gave the Asia Cup a new form of relevance at a time multi-nation ODI tournaments were finding no place in a calendar packed with bilateral series and multiple T20 franchise league events. T20I format in 2022, ODIs this year, the Asia Cup has quietly been reformed into a competitive prep ahead of a major ICC event. It has also meant that of all cricket's events, the Asia Cup now has possibly the shortest legacy.

That the tournament hasn't been hosted in India since 1991 says a lot about the lure of the Asia Cup from the economic point of view. And even though winning the event brings with it the confidence of defeating multiple teams within a time span a bilateral series can never provide, the Asia Cup is now essentially reduced to a warm-up, a chance for fine-tuning before a major ICC event. 

The 2022 edition, for example, was supposed to be a dress rehearsal with Jasprit Bumrah leading the bowling attack but he was ruled out because of an injury. This time, the spotlight will be again on him.

The fact that the Asia Cup allows for a bigger squad to be selected also helps teams push the envelope with newer faces. Tilak Varma is one such example. 

"In the West Indies, we saw some real promise in terms of not just performances but the temperament," Ajit Agarkar, chief of selectors, had said of Tilak's selection earlier this week. "And it gives us an opportunity to take him with the team, give him some more exposure; a left-hander again, looks very promising. So fortunately, we can take 17 here, it'll be 15 at the World Cup. So, when the time comes, we'll take that decision, but at the moment it at least gives the coach and captain an opportunity to have him with the squad."

An India-Pakistan game has often been the subsistence of many multi-nation tournaments and the Asia Cup is no different. But in keeping up with the times by also offering itself as a warmup to ICC events, the Asia Cup has at least ensured continuity. At a time when franchise leagues, ICC events and the triopoly of India, Australia and England are taking up almost the entire calendar year, that's nothing short of an achievement.