The Asian Cricket Council Premier League is a limited-overs cricket tournament that serves as a qualification pathway for the Asia Cup. The ACC Premier League was first held in 2014. It allowed the associate and affiliate members of the Asian Cricket Council to contest for the Asia Cup title. Full members or test-playing nations as per the International Cricket Council (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh) do not participate in this competition.
The ACC Premier League is a continuation of the previously held ACC Asia Cup Elite Trophy. Over the years, the tournament has had dynamic changes in its format due to many reasons including availability of teams, scheduling of ICC events and variability in number of participating nations. Initially, different divisional tournaments were played to determine who would progress further for the Asia Cup. However, the tournament then shifted to a single event where teams play each other in a round-robin format. Depending on the number of teams that participated in the event, either one or two teams qualified directly for the Asia Cup.
In 2023, a new qualification route for the Asia Cup was announced. Eight associate teams had to play a Challenger Cup where they were divided into two groups for round-robin fixtures. The top two teams of this competition qualify for the Premier Cup. The winner of the Premier Cup qualifies for the Asia Cup. The Premier Cup features 10 teams who are divided in two groups. Teams play each other in a round robin format before playing the knockout matches. The winner of the tournament qualifies for the Asia Cup.
The Asia Cup qualifying events were introduced in 2014. Since then, Hong Kong and Nepal have been the most successful sides of the competition.
