A tournament built around a new ground
The Asian Cricket Council was formed in September 1983 and wanted a competition of its own. The first one was small: three teams, three matches, eight days, and a single venue in a country that did not play in it. Sharjah had been chosen because Abdul Rahman Bukhatir's stadium there was new, because the emirate had a large South Asian population willing to fill it, and because the ACC's own offices had been established in the United Arab Emirates. The tournament was sponsored by Rothmans and is still sometimes listed under that name.
There was no final. Each side played the other two over 46 overs a side, and the trophy went to whoever topped the table. That gave the event an unusual shape, with the decisive fixture, India against Pakistan, falling last on 13 April.
Khanna's week
Sri Lanka began well. Pakistan, captained by Zaheer Abbas, were held to 187 for 9, and Roy Dias made 57 as Sri Lanka won by five wickets with six and a half overs unused. Two days later Sri Lanka met India and were taken apart. Madan Lal took 3 for 11, Sri Lanka were out for 96 in 41 overs, and India's openers, Surinder Khanna and Ghulam Parkar, chased the runs down without being separated. It took 21.4 overs and remains one of the more complete wins in the competition's history.
Khanna, who kept wicket and opened the batting, had made 51 not out. In the last match he made 56 as India posted 188 for 4, and Roger Binny then took 3 for 33 to help bowl Pakistan out for 134. Khanna was man of the match in both games and finished as the tournament's leading scorer with 107 runs at 107, which was enough for the player of the tournament award in a competition where nobody batted more than twice.
What it established
The 1984 event set out the pattern the Asia Cup would follow for the next two decades: a short tournament, a small field, and India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as the fixed points. It also established Sharjah as a venue for subcontinental cricket played away from the subcontinent, a role the ground and later Dubai and Abu Dhabi would keep returning to whenever politics made a home fixture impossible.
The first tournament passed off without any of the withdrawals that would disrupt the next two editions. India took the trophy home, Pakistan went home without a win, and the competition had proved it could be staged at all, which at the time was the main question.