india vs pakistan asia cup where to watch | Asia Cup

 

Hello, hello and welcome to 'Around the world of cricket'. I'll start with what topics we'll see in today's episode. India toured Zimbabwe. We will probably also see the Asia Cup. I will also give a small update on IPL for women. And they launched an FTP plan.  The ICC will usually announce a Future Tours Program which will list all bilateral series and World Test Championship games. This has been the main headline in recent days. We'll also see "Player Watch" this week. Let's dive into the first topic. Today's first topic will be India vs Zimbabwe and Asia Cup. I don't even know where to start because I'm interested in both topics. In a way, both are common. India is about to play the Asia Cup and we have a marquee match against Pakistan. The Asia Cup Council has announced the schedule in such a way that India will face Pakistan twice and if they reach the final, three times. We will usually have qualifiers before the main event. And yes, qualification is a topic that strongly impressed me. Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuwait and the UAE are the four teams that will play in the qualifiers. Both the qualifiers and the main tournament will of course take place in the United Arab Emirates. The team that dominates the qualifiers will join India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka in the main tournament.

 

No one knows who qualifies because frankly I haven't followed much tier 2 cricket. But I feel the UAE could qualify because there is a lot of cricket happening in the UAE. Even T10 leagues have been held there in the past. The main rule of this league is that you should have at least 2 Emirati players in your team. So it is obvious that they would adjust their strength on the bench. Actually I know Chirag Suri personally. He is the main batsman for the UAE side. I'll keep my fingers crossed to see how he does.  All 5 major teams are primary members of the ICC. These 5 are part of the 12 trial members of the ICC. If you look at Cricinfo they would put the 6th team as TBA which is nothing but 'To Be Announced.' We will see who will be the fifth team when the qualifiers are over. From these 6 teams, they introduced a new concept called 'Super 4s'. Back then we used to have "Super 6s" during the World Cups. 

The Super 6s usually followed the league stage. The main teams will play against each other and then play semi-finals and finals. They have introduced 'Super 4s' here and India are expected to play Pakistan once again in this round. India and Pakistan are placed in the same group and the qualifier is the third team from that group. So there is a better chance of India and Pakistan qualifying from this group. But still, cricket is a game of wonderful uncertainties. I want to add 'Anything can happen' in case we never find out. India and Pakistan may play twice in Asia Cup.  I am sure you will definitely support me. India vs Pakistan is always a striking event. Next: India vs Zimbabwe. You might be wondering what special I have to talk about India vs Zimbabwe. But today I read an amazing article on Cricinfo. Wrote a preview of India-Zimbabwe. I have already told you about the rise of franchise cricket. Is the gap in the quality of World Cricket increasing day by day? Obviously yes. Where there is more money, there are more job opportunities, and where players thrive, we see more opportunities for talent to flourish. 

For example, India sent a 15-member team to Zimbabwe. Washington Sundar was injured and Shahbaz Ahmed was sent in as a last-minute substitute. Shahbaz Ahmed has a good contract in RCB.  But surely he must be making millions. But he leaves as a substitute player at the last minute. While the Zimbabwe National T20 League which is called the National Premier League (NPL), the total prize money for this tournament is $10,000. Yes, you heard right. If we convert it comes to INR 8.50 crores. The total prize money for their premier tournament is INR 8.50 crores. Even the base price of a player is more than 8.5 crores in IPL. That is the gulf between the two cricketing nations is what they have beautifully mentioned in that article. The title of the article is 'There is a chance of a solar eclipse.' He did not write badly about anyone or praise anyone. It just paints a picture for us of where these two cricketing nations stand. At one point, Zimbabwe was unable to pay the wages of its own players. But now they have a new administration that has taken over and cleaned up the past charges.

 And he put Zimbabwe back on the cricketing map. So yes, there has been some resurgence in Zimbabwean cricket. We also saw about Sikander Raza in our 'Player Watch'. So if Zimbabwe do well in this series they will get all the accolades and it will be good for their cricket. That's what he wrote in that article. What is the update regarding women's IPL? Well, the BCCI secretary had already announced a few days back that the IPL will consist of 5-6 teams. In fact, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly himself announced that the 2023 IPL will be for women for sure. In recent years we have had it as an exhibition event or a 3 team event. Foreign players could play in this 3-team event in earlier years. So we can definitely expect Women's IPL to take place this year.