Afro-Asia Cup Set To Return: The biggest cricket superstars in Asia – Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma – could feature in the same XI against Africa XI soon as the Afro-Asia Cup is set to be revived after 17 years.
Afro-Asia Cup Set To Return
According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, the Africa Cricket Association (ACA) is leading the discussion for the potential return of the Afro-Asia Cup, which is a series between Asia XI and Africa XI and has been played twice so far, back in 2005 and 2007.
The ACA has had informal discussions with members of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and both organisations seem to be on the same page to bring back this competition, through the ACA will soon make a formal approach to the ACC about this topic.
The interim chair of the ACA Tavengwa Mukuhlani, who is also the Zimbabwe Cricket Chair, said at a press conference,
“The Afro-Asia Cup, apart from the cricket, brings the much-needed financial input to the organisation, and the appetite is huge from both ends. We have had conversations with our counterparts within the Asia Cricket Council, and obviously our African contingents, they want the Afro-Asia Cup to be revived.”
When was the last time the Afro-Asia Cup was played and who won it?
The Afro-Asia Cup has been played twice in a series of three ODIs: in 2005 and in 2007. In 2005, the series was played in South Africa, and it was leveled at 1-1 with one match getting washed out. In 2007, India hosted the Afro-Asia Cup, and Asia XI won 3-0.
The 2005 Asia squad was led by Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq and included India’s Rahul Dravid, Ashish Nehra, and Anil Kumble.
The 2007 Asia XI squad saw MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, and Sachin Tendulkar team up with Mohammed Asif, Mohammed Yousuf, and Shoaib Akhtar.
The ACA wants to bring back the Afro-Asia Cup to boost their financial status as the organization is struggling a bit. It will also provide African cricketers with more opportunities to face the best Asian players.
However, getting the BCCI and PCB to allow their players to play together will be a highly challenging task due to the political tension between the two nations. Because of this, they haven’t played a bilateral series for the last 11 years and only meet in ICC tournaments and Asia Cups.
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