Cricket faces a nervous wait if it will be part of the 2026 Asian Games (Photo by Sun Fei/Xinhua via … [+]
Pessimism over whether cricket will be part of the 2026 Asian Games has increased with Japan Cricket Association head of operations Alan Curr declaring that it is “not” in the sports programme.
As I first reported last month, cricket faces exclusion in the multi-sports event to be held in Nagoya, Japan, in what would be a blow to the development of the sport in the baseball crazy country.
Hopes had been raised with the Olympic Council of Asia and Japanese organizing committee publicly pushing for cricket’s inclusion. “The organizing committee is very keen on including that (cricket) in the 2026 Asian Games,” OCA deputy director general Vinod Kumar Tiwari told Reuters.
A baseball stadium in Nagoya had been proposed to be repurposed, as per the Reuters report. But as I previously reported, logistical challenges – given a cricket ground’s oval-shaped dimensions and playing pitch in the middle – are proving difficult to overcome.
“Look, if cricket is actually included in the games, obviously that would be fantastic. However, we have followed up with the organizing committee who were pretty clear,” Curr recently told Emerging Cricket in the aftermath of my article.
“There are 41 other sports they are going to deliver for the Games and cricket is not one of them at this stage. Unless someone tells us any differently, we won’t be making any plans to take our teams to participate in this event.”
The OCA has remained defiant despite Curr’s comments “That (cricket is in Asian Games) is my understanding. It’s an Olympic sport now. I have inquired about it and I am hopeful it will be there in Nagoya,” Randhir Singh, head of OCA, told Cricbuzz.
Conversations remain ongoing between the Asian Cricket Council – still led by powerful India boss Jay Shah until he takes over world cricket in December – and the relevant authorities. A final decision is expected next year.
The next Asian Games – boasting more sports and athlete quotas than the Olympics – will be held less than two years before the Los Angeles Games, where cricket will end a 128-year Olympic exile.
Cricket will be played at the Los Angeles Olympics (Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty … [+]
Cricket, by some metrics the second most popular sport in the world but mostly confined to British Commonwealth countries, had traditionally shunned multi-sports events.
But sentiment has changed from the sport’s power brokers over the past decade, with more emphasis on expanding cricket beyond its traditional footprint.
Cricket was played at the Asian Games in 2010, 2014 and last year 15 men’s teams and nine women’s teams competed. Significantly India, the sport’s financial power, participated having skipped in ’10 and ’14 and they won double gold in Hangzhou.
With uncertainty over the Asian Games, there is better news with cricket set to be a late inclusion in the sports programme for next year’s Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, as I reported last month.
Cricket appeared set to be excluded from the next SEA Games held in several cities in Thailand, including Bangkok, from December 9-20, 2025. The biennial multi-sport event started in 1959, and features around a dozen nations, but cricket only made its debut in 2017 in Malaysia.
It was not part of the subsequent two SEA Games held in the Philippines and Vietnam. But cricket made a comeback last year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with eight men’s and women’s events played over four formats.
Cricket’s bid for inclusion has been pushed by the Shah-led ACC.
