India and Pakistan have been placed in the same group for this year's Asia Cup, the Asian Cricket Council announced in Lahore on Thursday. Hong Kong completes Group B, while defending champion Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) form Group A in the ninth edition of the tournament, to be hosted by Pakistan in June-July this year. The three sides in each group play each other once. The top two teams will qualify for the second phase, where teams will again play each other once. The top two teams qualify for the final. “Karachi will host ten of the thirteen matches, while Lahore will host three and since the event is played in the summer season all matches will be day-night, starting late in the afternoon,” said ACC chief executive Ashraful Huq. The tournament, which runs between June 24 and July 6, carries prize money of $200,000, said Huq. Pakistan's cricket body has said it will provide maximum security for visiting teams. “We have always provided the same security to visiting teams that is normally reserved for heads of state. We will do the same during the Asia Cup,” Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Nasim Ashraf told reporters. The Asian Cricket Council's President, Arjuna Ranatunga, who is also president of the Sri Lanka Cricket Association, said he had no qualms about sending his team to Pakistan. “We are not very much concerned about the (security) situation here because we have gone through such situations back home,” Ranatunga said. “All participating countries (in the Asia Cup) have given us the green light, and they are willing to come to Pakistan,” he said. Ranatunga said that in the event Pakistan could not host the June 24-July 6 tournament, Sri Lanka could be the alternate venue. Ashraf said India's brilliant show against Australia will inspire other Asian nations and prove a boon for the game in the region. Led by an inspirational Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India beat Australia 2-0 to lift the tri-series one-day tournament earlier this month. Lanka to play in Pakistan Sri Lanka will tour Pakistan for a five-match series of One-Day Internationals in April and May. “Sri Lanka has accepted our invitation to play a one-day series,” PCB chief Ashraf told reporters on Thursday. Board sources told Reuters that Sri Lanka had agreed to tour between April 23 and May 5. Earlier this week, Bangladesh agreed to play five one-dayers and a Twenty20 match in Pakistan from April 6 to 22. The two unscheduled tours will fill the void after Australia postponed its trip to Pakistan because of the troubled security situation in the country.Hair may umpire England series Controversial Australian umpire Darrell Hair may umpire in England's three-Test home series against New Zealand this year, International Cricket Council (ICC) general manager Dave Richardson said on Thursday. Hair, 55, was reinstated to the ICC's elite panel this week after he had been sacked in November 2006 for his role in The Oval Test between England and Pakistan that year when the visitors became the first team to forfeit a Test. In a television interview Richardson said Hair's first real opportunity would be in the England-New Zealand series starting at Lord's on May 15. “Both teams rate Darrell Hair very highly,” Richardson said. “It's likely that he will get an opportunity.” __
