While the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) will be meeting in Dubai and it is expected that the Asia Cup-2020 T20 Tournament will be held in Dubai and both India and Pakistan will also participate, it has been learnt.

Earlier, the Asia Cup was scheduled to take place in Pakistan but India was not ready to play in Islamabad owing to security concerns.

The ACC meeting is scheduled on March 3 in Dubai and its Chairman Nazmul Hassan will preside. One of the key discussions expected to be around this September's Asia Cup T20 tournament.

PCB chairman Ehsan Mani, who is also a former ACC and ICC President, will represent Pakistan in this important meeting.

It may be noted that the ACC had awarded the Asia Cup to Pakistan, but due to Indian reservations, concerns have grown on the prospects of Pakistan hosting the India cricket team for the competition.

Sources in the PCB claimed that the ACC is the event authority, while the PCB is the host of the Asia Cup-2020 T2o Tournament; it will be the ACC Board that will make the final decision on the event venue.

It may be recalled that in 2018, the ACC Board had allocated the Asia Cup 50-over tournament to BCCI but decided to stage the event in the United Arab Emirates due to Pakistan cricket team's inability to travel to India.

Pakistan last staged the Asia Cup in 2008 in Lahore and Karachi, with Sri Lanka defeating India in the final at the National Stadium.

Both Pakistan and India had not played a bilateral series since 2012 when Pakistan toured India for three ODIs and two T20Is. However, they have regularly played against each other in ICC and ACC events with Pakistan traveling to India for the 2011 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup semi-final, the ICC Women's World Cup in 2013 as well as the ICC T20 World Cup 2016.

Cricket analysts believe that the Asia Cup T20 tournament is important event ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, which will be staged in Australia from 18th October to 15th November, 2020.

Pakistan is ranked No.1 in ICC rankings, while India is fourth, followed by Afghanistan seventh, Sri Lanka eighth and Sri Lanka ninth.

Ehsan Mani will return to the country on Saturday (March 7). Apart from the ACC meeting, he will also attend the ICC Financial and Commercial Affairs committee meeting which he chairs.

Analysts are of the view that the PCB should push to host the event in Pakistan but even if a decision to relocate to the UAE in made, then PCB must accept it. Nevertheless, if the PCB tries to be rigid and stubborn, the ACC has the authority to take the event away from the PCB. That will be more detrimental to the image of the PCB apart from loosing handsome fee for staging events.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly has already announced that the Asia Cup will be held in Dubai, allowing both India and Pakistan to participate in the tournament. "Asia Cup will be held in Dubai and both India and Pakistan will play," Ganguly said.