Asia Cup: this group needs a therapist, not a tourney

Is there any good reason the Asia Cup is still with us, asks Osman Samiuddin, writing in the National.

The question about the Asia Cup is actually an ideological one: why is the Asia Cup? In the mid-70s, when the idea first appeared, borne from an official alliance of Asian teams, there was understandable sense behind it. Australia and England had long run cricket and India and Pakistan, swiftly emerging, wanted to change this. Tellingly for what was to come though, it wasn't until 1983 that they could get it together enough to form an Asian Cricket Council, and 1984 when the first tournament was held in Sharjah. But now? What is the purpose of a continental body in a sport played by so few countries? The Asian bloc is no more.

Now it is simply the India bloc; of the others, one board can't pay its players, another can't play at home and the last is still battling for relevance. Within there is no unity, just unequal, dysfunctional relationships; India and Pakistan are in the middle of another tiff, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh do essentially what the Indian board tells them, Bangladesh are dangling Pakistan around with the flimsy promises of a visit and Pakistan's negligence was nearly fatal for Sri Lanka in Lahore three years ago. This group is in need of a therapist not a tournament.