The heated relationship between the Indian and Pakistani cricket boards leading up to Thursday's Asian Cricket Council (ACC) AGM in Dhaka ended with no formal announcement of the 2026 T20 Asia Cup, which is scheduled to start in the second week of September. The session was ended without addressing the selection of the ACC Vice President.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) owns the hosting rights to the next iteration of the Asia Cup, and additional discussions are understood to be necessary before it may enter into force.

Following the meeting, Mohsin Naqvi, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and ACC, told reporters, "We are in discussions with the BCCI and hopefully we will resolve the (issues) very soon."

Keeping the current structure where India and Pakistan begin in the same group to allow for a return clash between the arch rivals in the following round and a potential third clash in the final is crucial for the tournament's continued commercial appeal.

The Indian board is theoretically in agreement with the notion, according to several ACC members, but all that BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia could say after the meeting was that "an announcement will be made in the coming days". The income from the men's Asia Cup is not significant for the well-established BCCI, but it is more important for all other ACC member boards.

Saikia had refuted claims that India would refuse to play Pakistan in the Asia Cup in May, saying that they had not discussed the issue.

The possibility of any cricket between the two neighboring countries was surrounded by dark clouds following the brief armed fight between India and Pakistan in May. The previously agreed understanding of India-Pakistan matches in multinational tournaments held at a neutral venue was once again up for debate after the ceasefire. In Colombo, India, Pakistan will compete in its games for the forthcoming ICC Women's World Cup. The whole competition will probably be relocated to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the next men's Asia Cup.

Despite the fact that the ACC's press release stated that its members were still dedicated to "putting cricket first," the events leading up to the meeting provided little evidence of this. Geo politics took precedence over the proceedings.

To start with, Naqvi organized the conference in Dhaka despite the wishes of the BCCI. Due to strained political relations between India and Bangladesh, Indian cricket authorities attempted unsuccessfully to ban the meeting because they were unwilling to travel to Dhaka. In the end, India joined the AGM online, with BCCI Vice President Rajiv Shukla signing in.

Cricket at the 2026 Asian Games

The ACC revealed that cricket would be included in the forthcoming Asian Games 2026 in Japan, with ten men's and eight women's teams selected from throughout the continent based on their rankings. In the past, cricket has been a medal discipline in three editions: 2010, 2014, and 2023.

Mongolia, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, and other nations were admitted into the 25-member ACC.

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