Asian Cricket Council slams PCB Chairman Najam Sethi's comment targeting Jay Shah

PCB chairman's comment came a day after Jay Shah announced the council's cricket calendar for 2023 and 2024 and a pathway structure for qualification to the Men's and Women's Asia Cup.

"Presenting the @ACCMedia1 pathway structure & cricket calendars for 2023 & 2024! This signals our unparalleled efforts & passion to take this game to new heights. With cricketers across countries gearing up for spectacular performances, it promises to be a good time for cricket," Jay Shah said in a tweet.

Arch-rivals India and Pakistan are in the same group for the Asia Cup 2023.

PCB's interim chairman Najam Sethi had slammed Jay Shah for "unilaterally" presenting the structure and calendar of ACC.

Sethi replied to Shah with a sarcastic tweet on Thursday and said, "Thank you Jay Shah for unilaterally presenting ACC structure & calendars 2023-24 especially relating to Asia Cup 2023 for which Pakistan is the event host. While you are at it, you might as well present structure and calendar of our PSL 2023! A swift response will be appreciated."

Asian Cricket Council issued an official statement, "The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Thursday announced the ACC Calendar 2023-24 and the pathway structure. It has come to our knowledge that PCB Chairman Najam Sethi has made a comment on the ACC President unilaterally taking the decision on finalising the calendar and announcing the same. The ACC wants to clarify that it has followed established due process. The calendar was approved by its Development Committee and Finance and Marketing Committee in a meeting held on December 13, 2022."

"The calendar was then communicated to all the participating members individually, including Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), via an email dated December 22, 2022. While responses were received from certain Member Boards, no comments or suggested modifications were received from PCB. In view of the above, Sethi's comments on a social media platform are baseless and are vehemently denied by the ACC," it further read.

As per the new calendar, 2023 will start off with Men's Challengers Cup, a ten-team fifty-over tournament. This tournament will feature 10 teams, out of which eight are Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Maldives, Thailand and Iran. Two teams are yet to be named. There will be two groups of five teams each. A total of 23 matches will be played.

In March, a Men's Under-16 Regional tournament will be held. The tournament will feature eight teams, region-wise.

The winners and runners-up of the aforementioned Men's Challengers Cup will qualify for Men's Premier Cup, a 50-over tournament. This competition will be played in April and will span 24 matches. There will be ten teams divided in two groups of five matches. The teams confirmed for the tournament are, UAE, Nepal, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

In June, a Women's T20 Emerging Teams Asia Cup will be held. It will feature eight teams, divided in groups of two each. One group will feature India A, Pakistan A, Thailand and Hong Kong. The other group will have teams like Sri Lanka A, Bangladesh A, UAE, Malaysia.

Next up will be Men's Emerging Teams Asia Cup, a 50-over tournament. The top-three teams of the tournament will qualify for this tournament. This competition will have eight teams, divided in two groups of four each. The first group will feature India A, Pakistan A, Sri Lanka A and Qualifier 1. The other group will have Afghanistan A, Bangladesh A and Qualifier 2 and 3. This tournament will have 15 matches.

In August, a Men's L2 Coaching Course and a Curators Workshop will be held.

The men's Asia Cup, the main tournament of ACC, will be held in September. It will feature six teams, divided in two groups of three teams. India, Pakistan and Qualifier 1 (the winner of Men's Premier Cup) is in one group while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are in the other. A total of 13 matches will be held in the tournament.

In October, November, and December, one tournament each for Men's Under 19 Cricket will be held. A Challengers Cup will kick off things for Under-19 cricketers in October. The tournament will feature 10 matches and will be divided in group of five each. In the first group will be Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Bhutan, China and a Qualifier. The other group will have Myanmar, Maldives, Thailand, Iran and Qualifer 2.

Men's Under-19 Premier Cup will be held in November, which will feature ten teams. The first group will feature UAE, Kuwait, Nepal, Qatar and Qualifier 1. The next group will have Oman, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and a second qualifier. It will feature the winner of the Challengers Cup.

In December will be held the Men's Asia Cup at the under-19 level, featuring the winner, runner up and a third-place finish team from Premier Cup. Teams confirmed for this tournament are, India, Pakistan in Group 1 along with two qualifiers and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan final qualifier in Group 2.

The year 2024 will start off with Men's T20 Challenger Cup in February and the Women's T20 Challenger Cup in March. In men's tournament will feature Asian cricket's associate teams ranking from 14 to 23, while associate teams ranked from nine to 18 will be in the women's tournament.

Winner and runner-up of this tournament will be qualifying for Men's and Women's T20 Premier Cup, to be held in April and May respectively. The men's tournament will have 10 teams, all associate teams ranking from 6-13 along with qualifiers. The women's tournament will have six teams, featuring associate teams ranked from five to eight and two qualifiers. In August, a Men's L3 coaching course and A Curators Workshop will be held.

In September and October, Women's T20 Asia Cup and Men's Under-19 Asia Cup will be held. The top two teams of the Women's Premier Cup will join the T20 Asia Cup. It will have 16 matches and six teams, divided in two groups of three each. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh will be in one group while the other will have Sri Lanka and two qualifiers.

The Men's Under-19 Asia Cup in October will have eight teams. In one group will be India, Pakistan, Qualifer 1 and 2 and the other group will have Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Qualifier 3.

The Men's T20 Emerging Teams Asia Cup will be held in December after an Umpires Workshop in November. This tournament will feature top three teams from the Under-19 Premier Cup and overall eight teams, divided in two groups of four teams. India A, Pakistan A, Sri Lanka A and Qualifier 1. The other group will feature Bangladesh A, Afghanistan A and Qualifier 2 and 3. (ANI)