No Indian participation in cricket at Asiad while sport pushes for Olympic inclusion

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The Sports Times News Bureau
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New Delhi, April 21, 2023: While India is targeting its best-ever performance at the Asian Games in Hangzhou this year, it won’t be able to bank on one sport to add to the medal tally – cricket. For, it is the only sport where the country won’t be represented at the Games, which will be held from September 23 to October 8 according to the reports published in indianexpress.com.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has cited prior commitments as the reason for not entering the men’s or women’s teams for the continental mega event. “We have entries in all sports except one – cricket (team) isn’t going,” India’s chef de mission for the Asian Games, Bhupender Bajwa, told The Indian Express. “They said they are preoccupied. We sent 3-4 emails to them but when we had to send entries to the organisers, they said they won’t go.”

A cricket board official confirmed the development but added that they received the email from the Indian Olympic Association just ‘one day before the deadline’. “We had received the mail from IOA just one day before the deadline. At the same time, the BCCI already has finalised the FTP for women’s cricket. During the Asian Games, our team won’t be available as they will be playing in a tournament,” the BCCI official said.

According to the FTP, Indian women are scheduled to play South Africa and New Zealand in limited overs series. The men’s team, meanwhile, will compete in the ODI World Cup on home soil in October-November. There have been occasions in the past, however, when the BCCI has fielded two national teams. In 1998, one Indian team competed at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur while another faced Pakistan in the Sahara Cup in Toronto, Canada. More recently, in 2021, Shikhar Dhawan led a second-string Indian team for a series in Sri Lanka whereas another team, captained by Virat Kohli, was in the UK ahead of a Test series against England.

Cricket has been a part of two editions of the Asiad – in 2010 and 2014 – but India skipped both meets. After being left out of the 2018 Asiad in Jakarta, cricket has returned to the programme for the Hangzhou Games, which were originally supposed to be held last year but were postponed due to China’s zero-Covid policy.

The BCCI’s decision to skip the Asian Games also comes at a time when cricket is vying for a place at the Olympics. In fact, just days after the Asian Games conclude, an International Olympic Committee session is scheduled to take place in Mumbai, where cricket’s possible inclusion in the Olympics will be decided.

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