Afro-Asia Cup 2005

The Asian Cricket Council and Africa Cricket Association who have come together to form Afro-Asian Cricket Cooperation, a body to promote and develop cricket across Asia and Africa, are pleased to welcome as their sole commercial partner for the Afro-Asia Cup, Nimbus Sports International of Singapore

Mr. Syed Ashraful Huq, Chief Executive of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) says, "Nimbus made a terrific offer, well in excess of any prior media speculation, to acquire the worldwide rights to the next three Afro-Asia Cups. Not only will cricket fans the world over get the opportunity to watch some spectacular cricket between the best players from Africa and Asia, young cricketers across both continents will benefit because of the funds raised by these matches."

70% of all net proceeds each year will go the host continent's cricket development body, 20% to the visitors, and 10% to a recognised worthwhile charity.

Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya, President of the ACC and Chairman of Afro-Asian Cricket Cooperation states, "The Afro-Asia Cup will do much to raise the funds necessary to boost activity and support for youth and junior cricket across Africa and Asia. Our working slogan is `Cricket for Unity'. Singly we are strong, together we are even stronger."

Mr. Peter Chingoka, President of the Africa Cricket Association (ACA) said: "We would like to thank the Boards for making all their players available and the potential line-up of talent is quite remarkable."

The ICC have sanctioned the Afro-Asia Cup matches as One Day Internationals. All matches will be day-night. The schedule for the 2005 Afro-Asia Cup is:

August 17 Supersport Park, Centurion
August 20 Kingsmead, Durban
August 21 Kingsmead, Durban

Total prize-money for this year's event is $USD 100,000. The winning team in each match receives $25,000, the Man of the Match $5,000 and the Man of the Tournament $10,000.

Players will be paid their full ODI match fees. The ICC Match Referee appointed is Clive Lloyd and the Umpires will be Steve Davis (Australia) and Billy Doctrove (West Indies).

The ACA have nominated a selection panel comprising Mike Proctor (South Africa), Psyche Nkala (Zimbabwe) and Tom Tikolo (Kenya) to pick their squad for the matches. The ACC selection panel consists of Majid Khan (Pakistan), Ravi Shastri (India), Graeme Labrooy (Sri Lanka) and Mohammed Shafiqul Haque (Bangladesh).

For further information contact: Shahriar Khan, ACC Media Officer, media@asiancricket.org, +603 2095 9594, +603 2095 9593 (fax)