The ACC Men's Premier Cup is a biennial international cricket competition in limited overs cricket format (an alternating format of 50-overs and 20-overs cricket), organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) since its inauguration in 2023. The competition is played by the top associate members of the ACC advancing from the ACC Men's Challenger Cup to determine qualification for the Asia Cup, the Asia Cup Rising Stars (since 2025) and the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup (2023–2024).

As of 2026, three editions have been played; a total of eleven teams have played in the Premier Cup. Nine teams have competed in every tournament, and two have won the title. Nepal (2023, 2026) are the most successful team with two titles, while the United Arab Emirates (2024) have won the title once. Nepal are the current champions, having won the 2026 edition. The next edition of the tournament will take place in 2028.

History In January 2023, the ACC released the 2023–2024 calendar of events, which included a "Premier Cup" and a "Challenger Cup" tournaments as part of the associate teams' qualification pathway for the Asia Cup and the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup. Associate nations interested in hosting the event submit their "Expression of Interest" bid to the ACC, from which the final hosts for each tournament are selected.

The inaugural tournament in 50-over format was held in Nepal in April–May 2023. The second tournament in 20-over format was held in Oman in April 2024. In October 2025, the ACC announced that the Emerging Teams Asia Cup would be discontinued and be replaced by the Asia Cup Rising Stars. The third tournament in 50-over format was held in Malaysia in August–September 2026.

Format Qualification process

For the first two tournaments, top 8 associate teams based on the ICC T20I rankings directly qualified for the Premier Cup, while the next ranked teams (8 in 2023; 10 in 2024) qualified for the Challenger Cup. Since 2026, top 8 teams from the previous Premier Cup directly qualify for the Premier Cup, while other teams play in the Challenger Cup. Top 2 teams from the Challenger Cup advance to the respective Premier Cup. Top teams (1 in 2023 and since 2026; 3 in 2024) from each Premier Cup qualify for the respective Asia Cup. Top 3 teams from each Premier Cup also qualified for the Emerging Teams Asia Cup until 2024, and qualify for the Asia Cup Rising Stars since 2025.

+ Summary of the qualification process (2023–2026) # Year Qualified from Qualified to 1 2023 ICC T20I rankings2023 Challenger Cup 2023 Asia Cup2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2 2024 ICC T20I rankings2024 Challenger Cup 2025 Asia Cup2024 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup2025 Asia Cup Rising Stars 3 2026 2024 Premier Cup2026 Challenger Cup 2027 Asia Cup2027 Asia Cup Rising Stars

Tournament The Premier Cup has two stages. The preliminary stage, or group stage, featured 2 groups of 5 teams in a round-robin format. The second round is played as a knockout stage of four teams. In case of a tie (that is, both teams scoring the same number of runs at the end of their respective innings), a Super Over is used to decide the winner. In the case of a tie occurring again in the Super Over, subsequent Super Overs would be played until there is a winner.

The Premier Cup is played in an alternating format of 50-overs and 20-overs cricket. The Asia Cup and its qualification events taking place ahead of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup are played in a 50-overs format, while tournaments taking place ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup are played in a 20-overs format. In 50-overs tournaments, only the matches involving associate teams with ODI status are played as One Day International (ODI) matches with other mathces played as limited overs cricket (LOC) matches without international status while, tournaments in 20-overs format are played as complete Twenty20 International (T20I) tournaments.

+ Summary of tournament formats (2023–2026) # Year Format Teams Matches Preliminary stage Final stage 1 2023 ODI & LOC 10 24 2 groups of 5 teams:20 matches Knockout of 4 teams:4 matches 2 2024 T20I 3 2026 ODI & LOC

Summary + Details of Men's Premier Cup tournaments # Year Dates Host(s) Venues 1 2023 18 April – 2 May 2023 Cricket Association of Nepal 2 in Nepal 2 2024 12 – 21 April 2024 Oman Cricket 2 in Oman 3 2026 2 in Malaysia

Final results + Details of Men's Premier Cup finals Year Final Date & venue Winner Victory margin Runner-up 2023 Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur 118/3 (30.3 overs) 7 wickets 117 (33.1 overs) 2024 Oman Cricket Academy Ground Turf 1, Al Amarat 204/4 (20 overs) 55 runs 149/9 (20 overs) 2026 Bayuemas Oval, Kuala Lumpur 313/9 (50 overs) 44 runs 269 (49.1 overs)

Team performances As of the 2026 tournament, eleven teams have played in the Premier Cup. Nine teams have competed in every tournament, two of which have won the title. Nepal (2023, 2026) are the most successful team with two titles while the United Arab Emirates (2024) have won the title once. The United Arab Emirates have made three final and semi-final appearances, while Hong Kong, Nepal and Oman have each made two semi-final appearances. The best performance by a host team is winners by Nepal in 2023. Nepal also has the highest victory percentage in Premier Cup matches (81.25%).

By tournament An overview of the teams' performances in every Premier Cup is given below. Legend

+ Team performances in each Men's Premier Cup tournament 2023 2024 2026 50 ov. 20 ov. 50 ov. R1 R1 R1 3 R1 1 R1 3rd↑→ 3rd→ 3 4th R1 R1 3 R1 R1 R1* 3 W*↑→ 4th W↑→ 3 3rd→ RU*↑→ 4th 3 R1 R1 R1 3 R1 R1 R1 3 R1 R1 2 RU→ W↑→ RU→ 3

Overall The table below provides a summary of the performances of teams over past Premier Cups. + Overall team performances in Women's Premier Cup tournaments Team Won Lost Win % Best performance 3 17 13 3 0 (0/0) 1 81.25 Winners (2023, 2026) 3 18 14 4 0 (0/0) 0 77.77 Winners (2024) 3 18 10 7 0 (0/0) 1 58.82 Runners-up (2024) 3 15 8 6 1 (1/0) 0 60.00 Semi-finals (2024, 2026) 3 14 7 5 0 (0/0) 2 58.33 Semi-finals (2023) 3 12 5 6 1 (0/1) 0 41.66 First round (2023, 2024, 2026) 3 12 4 8 0 (0/0) 0 33.33 First round (2023, 2024, 2026) 3 11 3 8 0 (0/0) 0 27.27 First round (2023, 2024, 2026) 3 11 3 8 0 (0/0) 0 27.27 First round (2023, 2024, 2026) 2 8 0 8 0 (0/0) 0 0.00 First round (2023, 2026) 1 4 0 4 0 (0/0) 0 0.00 First round (2024) As of 2026 ACC Men's Premier CupSource: Cricinfo

Debutant teams by tournament + Debutant teams in each Men's Premier Cup tournament Year Debutant teams Total 2023 2024 2026 colspan="5" Total 11

Records As of the 2026 tournament, Aayan Afzal Khan of the United Arab Emirates holds the record for most appearances in Premier Cup matches (18), while Mohammed Aslam of Kuwait holds the record for the most Premier Cup matches as a captain (14). Oman Cricket Academy Ground Turf 1 in Al Amarat, Oman, has hosted the most Premier Cup matches (14). Emirati umpire Shiju Sam has umpired the most Premier Cup matches (16). A total of 14 centuries and twenty-five 100-run partnerships have been scored while, 11 five-wicket hauls and 38 four-wicket hauls have been taken in the tournaments. Abdul Waheed of Saudi Arabia holds the record for most runs (578), and Vriitya Aravind of the United Arab Emirates holds the record for most runs in a tournament (454 in 2023). Aayan Afzal Khan also holds the record for most wickets (33), and Bilal Khan of Oman (17 in 2023) and Sandeep Lamichhane of Nepal (17 in 2026) are tied for most wickets in a tournament. Zeeshan Ali of Hong Kong and Aasif Sheikh of Nepal are tied for most dismissals by a wicket-keeper (19) while Babar Hayat of Hong Kong and Dipendra Singh Airee of Nepal are tied for most catches by a fielder (12).

Overall records + Team records Record for Record holder Record Tournament(s) Highest team total (v ) at Kirtipur 471 2023 Lowest team total (v ) at Kuala Lumpur 60/10 2026 Highest match aggregate v at Kirtipur 741/19 2023 Lowest match aggregate v at Bangi 141/13 2026

+ Batting records Record for Record holder Record Tournament(s) Most runs Abdul Waheed 578 2023 – 2026 Most runs in a tournament Vriitya Aravind 454 2023 Highest score Vriitya Aravind (v ) at Kirtipur 185 2023 Most centuries 3 players 2 2023 – 2026 Highest partnership Rohan Mustafa & Vriitya Aravind (v ) at Kirtipur 275 2023

+ Bowling records Record for Record holder Record Tournament(s) Most wickets Aayan Afzal Khan 33 2023 – 2026 Most wickets in a tournament Bilal Khan Sandeep Lamichhane 17 20232026 Best bowling figures Haider Ali (v ) at Bangi 6/14 2026 Most four-wicket hauls 4 players 3 2023 – 2026 Most five-wicket hauls 2 players 2 2023 – 2026

+ Fielding records Record for Record holder Record Tournament(s) Most wicket-keeper dismissals Zeeshan Ali Aasif Sheikh 19 2023 – 2026 Most wicket-keeper dismissals in a tournament Usman Patel 13 2023 Most catches Babar Hayat Dipendra Singh Airee 12 2023 – 2026 Most catches in a tournament Muhammad Waseem 7 2024

Tournament records + Records by tournament Edition Most runs Most wickets 2023 Vriitya Aravind (454) Bilal Khan (17) 2024 Alishan Sharafu (278) Aqib Ilyas (12) 2026 Virandeep Singh (273) Sandeep Lamichhane (17)

See also Women's Asia Cup – women's competition held since 2004 ACC Women's Premier Cup – equivalent women's competition held since 2024

Asia Cup Rising Stars Under-19 Men's Asia Cup Women's Asia Cup Rising Stars Under-19 Women's T20 Asia Cup

References

External links