The Asia Cup is an international cricket tournament. It was conceived in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was created as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries. It was originally scheduled to be held every two years. The first edition was held in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE where the council's offices were based (until 1995).

Contents

1 First edition: 1984 2 Second edition: 1986 3 Third edition: 1988 4 Fourth edition: 1990/91 5 Fifth edition: 1995 6 Sixth edition: 1997 7 Seventh edition: 2000 8 Asia Cup 2004 8.1 Participating teams 8.2 Schedule 8.2.1 Phase one 8.2.1.1 Matches 8.2.1.2 Result 8.2.2 Phase two 8.3 Squads 9 Future plans 10 External links

First edition: 1984

The first edition of the Asia Cup was held in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE, the location of the headquarters of the newly formed Asian Cricket Council. The first match was Pakistan vs the new ICC member Sri Lanka. Mohsin Khan faced the first ball of the tournament. The final was played between India and Pakistan and the cup was lifted by India.

Second edition: 1986

The second edition was held in Sri Lanka, the first multi-national cricket series to be held there. India had pulled out of the tournament due to soured relations with Sri Lanka after a controversial series in Sri Lanka the previous year in which the umpires allegedly made wrong decisions to favour the home side leading to Sri Lanka winning their first ever test match. Sri Lanka lifted the cup beating Pakistan.

Third edition: 1988

The third edition was held in Bangladesh and won by India defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

Fourth edition: 1990/91

The fourth edition was held in India. Pakistan had pulled out of the tournament which helped India retain its hold on the Cup defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

Fifth edition: 1995

The fifth edition took the series back to Sharjah after 11 years. India and Sri Lanka made it to the final by virtue of better runrate than Pakistan as all three teams had equal points after preliminary round. For the third successive time in the Asia Cup, India defeated Sri Lanka in the final.

Sixth edition: 1997

For the fourth consecutive time, it was India and Sri Lanka in the final but this time a confident Sri Lanka beat India easily.

Seventh edition: 2000

Asia Cup 2000 was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh and won by Pakistan defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

Asia Cup 2004

The eighth edition of Asia Cup was held in Sri Lanka after a gap of 4 years. Sri Lanka beat India to win the cup.

Participating teams

Group A

1. Pakistan
2. Bangladesh
3. Hong Kong

Group B

1. Sri Lanka
2. India
3. UAE

Schedule

Phase one

Matches

• July 16
  • Bangladesh v Hong Kong - Bangladesh won by 116 runs
  • India v UAE - India won by 116 runs
• July 17
  • Pakistan v Bangladesh - Pakistan won by 76 runs
  • Sri Lanka v UAE - Sri Lanka won by 116 runs
• July 18
  • Pakistan v Hong Kong - Pakistan won by 173 runs
  • Sri Lanka v India - Sri Lanka won by 12 runs

Result

• Group A - 1st: Pakistan, 2nd: Bangladesh, 3rd: Hong Kong
• Group B - 1st: Sri Lanka, 2nd: India, 3rd: UAE

Phase two

• July 21
  • 2nd in Group A (Bangladesh) v 2nd in Group B (India) - India won by 8 wickets
  • 1st in Group A (Pakistan) v 1st in Group B (Sri Lanka) - Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets
• July 23 - 2nd in Group A (Bangladesh) v 1st in Group B (Sri Lanka)
• July 25 - 1st in Group A (Pakistan) v 2nd in Group B (India)
• July 27 - 1st in Group B (Sri Lanka) v 2nd in Group B (India)

India won

• July 29 - 1st in Group A (Pakistan)v 2nd in Group A (Bangladesh)

• August 1 - Final

India vs Sri Lanka :- Sri Lanka Won by 24 runs. Sanath Jayasuriya Man of the Series.

• August 2 - Reserve day

Squads

Bangladeshi squad for Asia Cup 2004
Habibul Bashar (captain) | Javed Omar | Rajin Saleh | Faisal Hossain | Mohammad Ashraful | Alok Kapali | Mushfiqur Rahman | Khaled Mahmud | Khaled Mashud | Mohammad Rafique | Manjural Islam Rana | Tapash Baisya | Tareq Aziz | Abdur Razzaq

Indian squad for Asia Cup 2004
Saurav Ganguly (Captain) | Rahul Dravid (Vice-captain) | Sachin Tendulkar | Virender Sehwag | V.V.S. Laxman | Yuvraj Singh | Mohammed Kaif | Parthiv Patel | Anil Kumble | Harbhajan Singh | Zaheer Khan | Lakshmipathy Balaji | Irfan Pathan | Ashish Nehra

Hong Kong squad for Asia Cup 2004
Rahul Sharma (captain) | Manoj Cheruparambil | Ilyas Gul | Tim Smart | Tabarak Dar | Alexander French | Najeeb Amar | Roy Lamsam | Nasir Hameed | Sher Lama | Khalid Khan | Nadeem Ahmed | Afzaal Haider | Graeme Jardine

Sri Lankan squad for Asia Cup 2004
Marvan Atapattu (captain) | Mahela Jayawardene | Sanath Jayasuriya | Saman Jayantha | Kumar Sangakkara | Tillakaratne Dilshan Thilina Kandamby | Upul Chandana | Chaminda Vaas | Nuwan Zoysa | Muttiah Muralitharan | Avishka Gunawardane | Lasith Malinga Farveez Maharoof

Pakistani squad for Asia Cup 2004
Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain) | Yousuf Youhana | Imran Farhat | Yasir Hameed | Imran Nazir | Younis Khan | Moin Khan | Abdul Razzaq | Shoaib Malik | Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan | Mohammad Sami | Shoaib Akhtar | Shabir Ahmed | Danish Kaneria

UAE squad for Asia Cup 2004
Khuram Khan (captain) | Arshad Ali | Abdul Rehman | Ali Asad Abbas | Asghar Ali | Asim Saeed | Fahad Usman | Mohammad Tauqeer | Mohammad Fawad | Naeemuddin | Ramveer Rai | Rizwan Latif | Sameer Zia | Syed Maqsood

Future plans

It is to be held every 2 years from 2004 onwards.

External links

• "Sri Lanka to host Asia Cup" - BBC report dated May 12, 2004 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/3708711.stm)
• "A swig of the Asia Cup" - a detailed history of the Asia Cup on Cricinfo.com with an Indian perspective (http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/JUL/017908_ASIA2004_14JUL2004.html)