The schedule has been finalised for this year's Asia Cup in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, according to Press Trust of India.
Four matches of the continental tournament will be held in Pakistan with the remainder being scheduled in Sri Lanka.
India will play Pakistan in Sri Lanka's Dambulla, similar to the 2010 edition. Pakistan's only home match will be against Nepal. The other three matches in Pakistan are Afghanistan vs Bangladesh, Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan. The matches in the Pakistan-leg are likely to be played in Lahore.
The schedule was finalised in a meeting between Zaka Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Management Committee, and Jay Shah, who is the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the President of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), on the sidelines of the chief executives’ committee (CEC) meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s annual session in Durban, South Africa, on Tuesday.
"Our secretary met PCB head Zaka Ashraf and the Asia Cup schedule was finalised and it is on course as it was discussed earlier. There will be four games of league stage in Pakistan, followed by 9 games in Sri Lanka including both India versus Pakistan game and in case a third game if both teams play final," Arun Dhumal, the current chairman of the Indian Premier League, told PTI.
A hybrid model will be used for the Asia Cup after India refused to tour Pakistan for the event due to security concerns.
However, the Minister of Inter-Provincial Coordination Ehsan-ur-Rehman Mazari brushed aside the notion that Pakistan isn't a safe country to play cricket, while also criticising India for mixing politics with sports.
“India brings sports into politics. I don’t understand why the Indian government doesn’t want to send their cricket team here. Some time back a huge baseball contingent from India was in Islamabad to play. There was also the bridge team that had travelled to Pakistan. There were around 60 plus people, I was the chief guest of the event. They won here and left. Pakistan’s football, hockey and chess teams also travel to India,” he said.
“It [security concerns] wasn’t a solid argument. The New Zealand team was here, before that the England cricket team was in Pakistan. They got presidential security. Earlier, the Indian team was given a hearty welcome by the fans here. Security is an excuse. We also held the Pakistan Super League (PSL) that had so many foreign players,” he added.
The cricket tournament will be played from August 31 to September 17 in the 50-over format.
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Nepal will compete in a total of 13 ODI matches.
These teams are divided in two groups with Group A including Pakistan, India and Nepal. Meanwhile, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are in Group B.