Broadcaster concerns main reason for shifting Asia Cup - SLC

By Amindha de Alwis  

Concerns regarding the country’s situation brought forward by broadcasters, particularly in the backdrop of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) being postponed, were the principal reasons for the upcoming Asia Cup being shifted out of Sri Lanka and to the UAE. 

This was conveyed by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) through CEO Ashley De Silva and Secretary Mohan De Silva at a press briefing held yesterday. 

“We tried our best. We had so many discussions with the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and the Member Boards of the ACC on numerous occasions, but unfortunately, when we met during the ICC meeting in Birmingham, they felt that the situation in Sri Lanka was not conducive to garner the confidence of the stakeholders.”

“India tried hard to persuade the other countries to host it in Colombo, but unfortunately, they felt that the best thing would be to have the tournament in the UAE. Because as you know, if something went wrong, our member countries would have blamed us, and alsowe would have incurred huge financial losses for all boards,” Mohan De Silva said.

However, he went on to say that from a financial perspective, SLC would still stand to gain approximately $6.5 million in revenue from the tournament. 

“In hindsight, this has also been a blessing in disguise because if we hosted the tournament in Sri Lanka, we would have received $2.5 million USD as the hosting fees which would have been circulating in our country. That would have been a great advantage. But now we are not only assured of the hosting fees of $2.5 Million but also $1.5 million from the ticket sales.”

“So, we will receive approximately $4 million, plus the revenue share which will be in the region of 2.5 to 3 million dollars. So altogether, hopefully, six and a half million dollars we are hoping to generate from this tournament,” De Silva shared.

He said that ultimately it was insurance issues brought forward by the tournament broadcasters which put the nail in the coffin of Sri Lanka’s chances of hosting the tournament.

“We tried hard to persuade the others and somehow host the tournament in Sri Lanka, but it came to a point where the broadcaster’s insurance companies were not agreeable with providing coverage (if the tournament was held in Sri Lanka),” he said.

CEO Ashley De Silva added, “The broadcasters (Star Sports) had said they would be unable to gain security clearance to bring their crew over here. They are under Disney and had said they would not gain clearance to bring their crew.”

The decision made in mid-July to postpone the third edition of the LPL, which was set to take place this month, ended up influencing perceptions of Sri Lanka’s capability to successfully host the Asia Cup.

“In our discussions, the postponement of the LPL proved a major drawback for us. If we had been able to go ahead with that tournament, I do not think this sort of issue would have arisen,” Mohan de Silva stated.

Sri Lanka has been placed in Group B for the Asia Cup with their first match to be versus Afghanistan on August 27 after which they play Bangladesh on September 1. The top two team from the group will progress to the Super Four stage starting September 3.