The 2025 Men's Asia Cup (also known as DP World Asia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the 17th edition of the Asia Cup cricket tournament. It is taking place in the United Arab Emirates from 9 to 28 September 2025.[1] The matches are being played in the Twenty20 International (T20I) format. India are the defending champions of 2023.[2]
The dates for the tournament were released in July 2024, with India initially set to act as host.[3] However, following the Pahalgam terrorist attack in early 2025 and the subsequent escalation of political and security tensions between India and Pakistan, concerns arose over the feasibility of hosting matches involving both nations in India.In July 2025, during the Asian Cricket Council’s annual meeting in Dhaka, ACC chairman Mohsin Naqvi announced that the tournament would instead be held in the United Arab Emirates, with matches staged in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The UAE was selected as a neutral venue due to its prior experience hosting high-profile multinational cricket tournaments under similar circumstances.[4]
Format
The groups and format of the tournament will be different to the previous tournaments, with the eight teams split into two groups of four. The top two teams from each group will qualify for a single-group Super Four stage. The top two teams in this stage will contest the final.[1]
The group stage match between India and Pakistan drew attention for some off field incidents. At start organisers mistakenly played a few seconds of Jalebi Baby song instead of Pakistan’s national anthem prompting criticism from Pakistani audience.[35][36]
At the toss both captains refrained from shaking hands, reportedly on the advice of match referee Andy Pycroft, and after the game the Indian players walked off without exchanging handshakes with the Pakistani side.[37] Pakistan’s head coach Mike Hesson expressed disappointment, while the PCB lodged a formal protest and later suspended operations director Usman Wahla over the handling of the episode.[38] Pakistan also wrote to the International Cricket Council and requested to remove match referee Pycroft from the remaining tournament which was rejected.[39] Pakistan vs UAE group stage match was delayed by an hour amid uncertainty over Pakistan’s participation, but eventually went ahead after the PCB announced that Pycroft had apologised to the team for his earlier actions, while the ICC confirmed he would continue as referee.[40]
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