ACC LAUNCHES NEW MEN’S CHALLENGER CUP TOURNAMENT

 

Thailand has been given the honor of hosting the first tournament in ACC’s calendar of events that will be held over the course of the next two years. The ACC Men’s Challenger Cup will be held in Bangkok from 24^th February to 5^th March and will see eight teams from across Asia compete in the first round of qualifying for the 2023 ACC Asia Cup which is due to be played in Pakistan later in the year.

This tournament sees a return to competitive 50-over cricket for all the countries involved after the ACC had changed the structure of their adult tournaments to concentrate on T20 cricket after 2014. The ACC are also returning to region wide tournaments after previously deciding to concentrate on Eastern and Western regional competitions.

Thailand have been regular hosts of ACC tournaments with 50-over matches played for the original ACC Challenge Trophy and the Women’s T20 Asia Cup was held in Bangkok in 2016.

The last ACC event to be held in Thailand was the 2020 Eastern Region T20 so it is a long-awaited return to Thailand by the ACC after a three-year break. This will be a tournament on a far bigger scale with eight teams, with every match live streamed by two TV crews and live scored on computer.

The 2023 ACC Men’s Challenger Cup is an eight-team tournament played in two groups followed by the semi-finals and final. Bahrain, Bhutan, Maldives and Iran will play in Group A, while Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar will play in Group B.

The top two teams in each group will qualify for the semi-finals and the winners of the semi-finals will not only play in the final but also reach the next stage of qualification for the 2023 Asia Cup.

This will be the ACC Men’s Premier Cup which will be held in Nepal in April with Qualifier 1 joining UAE, Nepal, Kuwait and Qatar in Group A, while Qualifier 2 will join Oman, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in Group B.

The top two teams in each group will reach the semi-finals and the winner of the final will qualify for the ACC Men’s ODI Asia Cup scheduled for Pakistan in September. The winner of the Premier Cup will compete against India and Pakistan in one group while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan meeting in the other group.

The three stage program of Men’s 50-over tournaments has been mapped out by ACC and the three best teams from the Men’s Premier Cup will also play in the Men’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup against A teams from the top-ranked countries.

2024 will see a similar structure for Men’s T20 cricket and over the next two years there will also be a similar series of ACC Women’s tournaments and age group tournaments at under-16 and under-19 levels.

It will be a busy period of cricket over the next two years for the Asian region’s men’s and women’s teams, together with the region’s age group teams and it is exciting that the whole process will start in Bangkok on 24^th February.

It should also be memorable times for all the Associate and Affiliate countries in the Asian region as no other region has so many participating countries or such an active governing body.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are probably the highest ranked teams in the tournament but Bhutan and Maldives will also be competitive in Group A while Indonesia and Thailand will look to challenge Saudi Arabia in Group B.

Thailand look to have selected a strong team with upcoming Thai players who spent a month in India preparing for this tournament.

Most of the visiting teams have played cricket in Thailand before and Indonesia played in the 2017 SEA Games held in Malaysia where they were beaten by Thailand.

There should be some exciting cricket played in the ACC Men’s Challenger Cup over the next 12 days before the final is played at TCG on 5^th March.