'It was way beyond time that we set this up’ – How Sharjah helped create Asia Cup

When the Asia Cup makes its return to Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday it will feel much like a family reunion.

Beloved relatives returning to the fold after 27 years of separation loaded with stories about all their achievements.

The first Asia Cup was staged in Sharjah in 1984. That tri-series, between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, represented the first official one-day internationals played at the new stadium in the UAE desert.

Both the competition and the venue have prospered in the time since. The success of that series consolidated a growing interest in the game among the expatriate community in the UAE. Sharjah now holds the world record for the most one-day internationals staged at a single venue.

“I felt that the with more than 1 billion people interested in cricket in the region that we needed an identity,” Abdulrahman Bukhatir, the founder of Sharjah Cricket Stadium, told The National.

View from outside the ground as spectators gather for the Asia Cup match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on April 6, 1984, at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Getty Images

“I proposed the idea of an Asia Cup to the Indian and Pakistani boards and they were enthusiastic to give this idea a shot.

“Since there were bipartisan crowds in the UAE we decided that after the success of the original Sunil Gavaskar v Javed Miandad match [an invitational fixture that launched the new ground] we would hold the first Asia Cup in Sharjah.

“[Administrators] NKP Salve and M Chinnaswamy from India, and Air Marshal Noor Khan [from Pakistan] were equally enthusiastic and thought it was way beyond time that we set this up.

“It was a huge success and set the pace for the unique and unparalleled [Cricketers Benefit Fund Series of matches in Sharjah]