BCCI to send men’s and women’s cricket teams for Asian Games 2023 - Reports

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is likely to send men’s and women’s teams for the upcoming Asian Games 2023. The Indian cricketer board had earlier decided against the same citing ‘prior commitments’ but have reportedly done a U-turn.

Asian Games 2023 will take in Hangzhou in China from September 23 to October 8, while the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup is set to be held in India from October 5 to November 23. Hence, the BCCI is likely to send a B-team for the men’s event at the Asian Games.

According to a report in The Indian Express, while the men’s team is likely to be a second-string one, the BCCI is set to send a full strength squad for the women’s event.

The report added that the BCCI will forward the list of players to the Indian Olympic Association before June 30. Both the men’s and women’s cricket competitions at the Asian Games will be played in the T20 format.

The development marks a complete deviation from the Indian cricket board’s earlier stance. India’s chef de mission for the Asian Games, Bhupender Bajwa, was earlier quoted as telling The Indian Express:

“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 organizers, they said they won’t go.”

India have fielded more than one cricket team simultaneously earlier before. Way back in 1998, one team took part at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, while another took on Pakistan in the Sahara Cup.

In 2021, Shikhar Dhawan led a led a white-ball squad to Sri Lanka, while the main team, captained by Virat Kohli, was part of a Test series in England.

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Has cricket featured in the Asian Games before?

Cricket was part of two editions of the Asian Games, in 2010 and 2014. However, the BCCI did not field a team for the events. The sport was left out of the 2018 edition in Jakarta but has been reinstated for the Hangzhou Games.