With T20 leagues mushrooming all over the globe, multi-nation ODI tournaments were becoming as redundant as Associate teams themselves.
So, now that the Asia Cup has rolled in — it has a six-team format including an Associate — hard-core cricket fanatics and connoisseurs will get a sense of déjà vu.
But more than the fact that India — who will be hosting the event in the United Arab Emirates to ensure participation of all the Asian giants, including Pakistan — will feature in a competitive game in the Gulf after 12 long years, the significance of this Asia Cup will be twofold: as a prelude to next year's World Cup and as a platform where the popular rivalry of India and Pakistan will be featured at least twice, possibly thrice, over the next fortnight.
No doubt, the scorching heat in the Gulf will not be similar to the conditions that five of the six featuring teams (barring Hong Kong) will encounter in England for the World Cup in nine months. Still, the Asia Cup will, in a way, sound off the bugle for the final leg of preparations for the big-ticket event in 2019.
