The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is reportedly planning to send men’s and women’s teams for the upcoming Asian Games which will be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8. However, due to the clash with the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, scheduled to take place in India from October 5 to November 23, the men’s team is expected to be a second-string squad, while the women’s team will likely be a full-strength squad.
According to The Indian Express, the BCCI is set to submit the list of players to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) before June 30. Both the men’s and women’s cricket competitions at the Asian Games will be played in the T20 format.
Although cricket has never featured in the Olympics, there have been talks to make a bid to include the sport for Los Angeles 2028 and beyond by the International Cricket Council (ICC). This move by the BCCI is seen as a step towards cricket’s participation in the Olympics. Last year, the women’s cricket team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, participated in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
It is worth mentioning that cricket was a part of the Asian Games in 2010 and 2014 but India didn’t take part in that. The Indian women’s team, nevertheless, have won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. While the Indian men’s team’s last appearance at a continental event like this was back in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) where they finished third in their group B and couldn’t registered a birth in the semi-finals.
BCCI had earlier said that due to conflicting schedules, they will not be sending any team for both cricket competition at the Asian Games. But they have apparently reconsidered their decision.
“We have entries in all sports except one – cricket (team) isn’t going. They said they are preoccupied. We sent around 3-4 emails to them but when we had to send entries to the organisers, they said they won’t go,” India’s chef de mission for the Asian Games, Bhupender Bajwa was earlier quoted as saying to The Indian Express.
This will be the third time that the BCCI will field two different teams simultaneously. In 1998, the first string of Indian cricket team participated in the Commonwealth Games while another played at the Sahara Cup. Similarly, in 2021, Shikhar Dhawan led a second-string Indian side to Sri Lanka for an ODI series, while the senior men’s team was competing against England in a Test series.
