The Board of Control for Cricket in India will field teams for men’s and women’s cricket at the 2022 Asian Games which is scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China in September-October.
According to a report in the Indian Express on Friday, the BCCI has submitted names for two teams to represent the country in cricket in Hangzhou.
This announcement comes as a backtracking from the BCCI’s earlier stance. The board had earlier said that due to conflicting schedules, they will not be sending any team for both cricket competition at the Asian Games.
For the men’s team, the Asian Games, scheduled to be held between September 29 and October 8, conflict with the Men’s World Cup to be held in India from October 5 to November 23. The women’s team, according to the BCCI, could have overseas tour commitments to fulfil during this time as well.
Cricket has been part of two editions of the Asian Games, in 2010 and 2014, where India did not send any teams, but was dropped from the 2018 edition in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Indian women’s team, however, have won a silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK 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 the group stage.
The cricket events at the Asian Games this year will be held 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.