The ACC Men's Challenger 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 associate members of the ACC, with the top teams advancing to the ACC Men's Premier 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 fourteen teams have played in the Challenger Cup. Five teams have competed in every tournament and two have won the title. Saudi Arabia (2023, 2024) are the most successful team with two titles while Malaysia (2026) have won the title once. Malaysia 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 Thailand in February–March 2023. The second tournament in 20-over format was also held in Thailand in January–February 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 Singapore in June 2026.
Format Qualification process
Top 8 associate teams on the ICC T20I rankings that are not already directly qualified for the Premier Cup, qualify for the Challenger Cup. Top 2 teams from the Challenger Cup advance to the respective Premier Cup.
Tournament The Challenger Cup is played in two stages. The preliminary stage or group stage is played by 2 groups in 2023 and 2024; and 4 groups in 2026 in a round-robin format. The 2024 tournament also had a play-in qualifier stage to determine one final entrant to the group stage. The second round is played as a knockout stage of four teams in 2023 and 2024; and 8 teams in 2026. The 2024 tournament also included 3 consolation place playoffs. 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 Challenger 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, the 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 Qualifier stage Preliminary stage Place playoffs Final stage 1 2023 LOC 8 15 2 groups of 4 teams:12 matches Knockout of 4 teams:3 matches 2 2024 T20I 10 22 Round-robin of 3 teams:3 matches 6th to 10th:3 matches Knockout of 4 teams:4 matches 3 2026 LOC 16 2 groups of 2 teams:2 matches&2 groups of 3 teams:6 matches Knockout of 8 teams:8 matches
Summary + Details of Men's Challenger Cup tournaments # Year Dates Host(s) Venues 1 2023 24 February – 5 March 2023 2 in Thailand Select the specific edition of the event in the first dropdown menu. 2 2024 Cricket Association of Thailand 1 in Thailand 3 2026 10 – 20 June 2026 Singapore Cricket Association 2 in Singapore
Final results + Details of Men's Challenger Cup finals Year Final Date & venue Winner Victory margin Runner-up 2023 Terdthai Cricket Ground, Bangkok 30/0 (4.1 overs) 10 wickets 26 (21.1 overs) 2024 Terdthai Cricket Ground, Bangkok 151/5 (17.3 overs) 5 wickets 147/5 (20 overs) 2026 Singapore National Cricket Ground, Singapore 247/4 (19.2 overs) 6 wickets 243 (24 overs)
Team performances As of the 2026 tournament, fourteen teams have played in the Challenger Cup. Five teams have competed in every tournament and two have won the title. Saudi Arabia (2023, 2024) are the most successful team with two titles while Malaysia (2026) have won the title once. Saudi Arabia have made two final appearances while, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Thailand have each made two semi-final appearances. The best performance by a host team is runners-up by Singapore in 2026.
By tournament An overview of the teams' performances in every Challenger Cup is given below. Legend
† denotes countries that are members of both the Asian Cricket Council and ICC East Asia-Pacific. + Team performances in each Men's Challenger Cup tournament 2023 2024 2026 50 ov. 20 ov. 50 ov. RU↑ § § 1 SF R1 QF 3 RU↑ R1 2 R1 QF 2 † R1 R1 4th 3 R1 1 † 4th 1 § § W↑ 1 R1 R1 QF 3 R1 R1 R1 3 W↑ W↑ § 2 § 3rd RU*↑ 2 SF* R1* 3rd 3 QF 1
Debutant teams by tournament + Debutant teams in each Men's Challenger Cup tournament Year Debutant teams Total 2023 † 2024 † 2026 Total 14
Records + Records by tournament Edition Most runs Most wickets 2023 Padmakar Surve (199) Ishtiaq Ahmad (12) Abdul Majid (12) Select the specific edition of the event in the first dropdown menu. 2024 Luqman Butt (245) Sharwan Godara (12) Utkarsh Jain (12) 2026 Sudhakar Jegannathan (282) Harsha Shanaka (14)
See also Women's Asia Cup – women's competition held since 2004 ACC Women's Premier Cup – similar 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