BIPIN DANI
The Dasun Shanaka-led Sri Lankan team will top Group B in the ongoing Asia Cup. Despite of this the Afghanistan team having won two matches (against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh), whereas the host team has only (one) victory against Bangladesh on Thursday.
Explaining the rules, the Technical Committee chairman Charith Senanayake, speaking exclusively, said, The higher ICC ranked team (from both groups) during the group stage will be deemed as the ‘Home’ team unless, SRI LANKA is playing, in that scenario SRI LANKA will be considered as the home team.
This is applicable during the next phase of the tournament.
"By this rule, even if the Indian team had lost the match against Pakistan, they would have headed the Group A". Sri Lanka will play against Afghanistan at Sharjah on Saturday (September 3) and against India on Tuesday (September 6) in Dubai.
It may also be noted that the Asia Cup is being co-hosted by three parties, namely, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). The ECB became co-host due to the inability of Sri lanka to host the event. Sri Lanka, however, remains as the original host.
Ravin Wickramaratne (SLC) and Salman Hanif (ECB) are the co-directors of the tournament.
