Asia Cup 2023 kicked off with a blast in Multan on Wednesday as hosts Pakistan trounced Nepal with a massive 238-run margin in the first fixture, which was also the two sides' maiden game of the continental tournament.
However, a mystery shrouded the muti-team cricketing event as fans raised questions about the absence of Pakistan's name on the official jerseys of the players, as the host country.
Before the much-awaited tournament started, all the participating teams unveiled their jerseys for the Asia Cup, but an intriguing detail that the fans noticed was that there was no mention of the host country's name on it under the official logo.
It may be noted that this year, Pakistan is jointly hosting the tournament with Sri Lanka due to the reservations voiced by India about visiting the rival country.
But the fans recalled that Sri Lanka's name was written on the Asia Cup kits last year, despite the event taking place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to the political and economic turmoil in the host country.
The sources affiliated with the authorities concerned have finally revealed the reason behind the exception.
They said that the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), which organises the Asia Cup every year, had decided against mentioning the host country's name along with the year on the jersey, last year during the tournament's 15th edition in the UAE.
The reason for that was ACC's concerns regarding the variability of the jerseys as some of the Asia Cup 2022 had Sri Lanka and some had only the year written on them.
To bring uniformity in the jerseys and to ensure that the jerseys reach more people, the ACC decided to mention neither the name of the host country nor the year of the tournament, the sources said.
They said that this year's Asia Cup jerseys only have the tournament's logo on them.