Since Pakistan is the host nation of the Asia Cup, the participant team jerseys had no name of Pakistan in their respective Jerseys.
Sri Lanka is also hosting the Asia Cup because India raises a concern of security in Pakistan and due to which most of the matches were shifted to Sri Lanka where Pak gets 4 matches and remaining 9 matches will be played in Sri Lanka.
The missing name was also seen during the Sri Lanka – Bangladesh match in Group B where in the Bangladesh jersey there was no name of the host nation while in the Sri Lankan jersey there was the name of their country just below the Asia Cup logo.
This raises some arguable questions by some former Pak players who show huge disapproval of this behaviour. Rashid Latif, Mohsin Khan and some other former players asked PCB to question respective boards and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) why there is no name of the hosting nation.
Rashid Latif says, “This is unacceptable and it is the Asian Cricket Council which must explain this lapse since the Asia Cup is under review.”
He also says that Ind-Pak relation is not so good and this might be the reason behind this whole scenario. He further said that Jay Shah (Secretary of BCCI) holds a key position in the decision making process and might disapprove this thing.
Rashid Latif further stated that, “Given the current scenario between the two countries, perhaps the BCCI officials felt it would be embarrassing for the Indian Team players to wear kits with the name of Pakistan on the official Asia Cup logo.”
Why is the event host’s name missing from the #ACCAsiaCup2023 logo? .@ACCMedia1 pic.twitter.com/Fd77dt2hve
— Rashid Latif | 🇵🇰 (@iRashidLatif68) August 30, 2023
Mohsin Khan says, “The ACC should provide a clear explanation for this discrepancy.”
In response to this PCB officials said that after last year’s Asia Cup it was already declared that there is no need to mention the name of the hosting country in their t-shirt. But the people and former players of the hosting nation didn’t seem to be convinced by this statement.