The Babar Azam-led Pakistan cricket team kickstarted their campaign in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 on a blockbuster note by defeating Nepal on Wednesday. Riding on the amazing record-breaking knock of captain Babar Azam, the Men in Green put up a dominant show in the opener against Nepal to take a step closer to the knockouts.
Pakistan cricket team will be now seen in action in the highly-anticipated India vs. Pakistan clash, which is scheduled to take place on 2nd September at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, ahead of the high-voltage clash tomorrow, the Pakistan Cricket Board has come under a lot of scanner of criticism. Several former cricketers are upset that the tournament logo does not have the name of the host nation, that is Pakistan. Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif even lashed out at ACC, asking them for an explanation. Rashid was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI:
“This is unacceptable and it is the Asian Cricket Council that must explain this oversight since the Asia Cup is their property,”
Former Test cricketer Mohsin Khan also echoed the same sentiments. He said:
“Makes no sense at all. Then why has the ACC given the host country’s name on the logos for their Asian Emerging Nations Cup or their Asian under-16 event held in July in Malaysia,”
Why Pakistan Is Not Written On Players’ Jerseys During Asia Cup 2023?
Apart from experts and cricketers, Pakistani fans also slammed the PCB and pointed out that the team jerseys had ‘Sri Lanka‘ written on them beneath the Asia Cup logo when the tournament was held in UAE last year due to the COVID-19 situation.
After receiving a lot of backlash from former cricketers and fans, the PCB has now decided to clear things up. As per a report in Cricket Pakistan, the Asian Cricket Council has decided to discontinue the practice of writing the host team’s name beneath the Asia Cup logo to avoid any confusion. It was also revealed that the decision was taken due to the mention of “Sri Lanka 2022” and “UAE 2022” on the shirts last year.
“As previously discussed, we made a deliberate decision during the last Asia Cup not to include the year and host name in the tournament logo. This was due to the presence of multiple logos circulating, one featuring Sri Lanka 2022, another with UAE 2022, and one with only the year 2022.”
PCB added:
“Our aim was to ensure consistency in our approach for a more effective logo outreach. Please take note that you observed the Sri Lanka name and year solely on the jerseys, as the teams had already printed them by the time, we made the change. Consequently, for this year’s Asia Cup, right from the initial communication regarding the schedule announcement, we have been exclusively using the Asia Cup logo without the year and host name,”
