Australia won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
With the sport’s Asian Games fate uncertain, cricket suffered a blow in its bid to become a staple at multi-sport events after being culled from the revamped 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The next Commonwealth Games was supposed to take place in regional Victoria, south-east Australia, but contentiously abandoned by the state government due to a billion-dollar cost blowout.
Amid dwindling interest, Scotland saved the day to step in as host but the next Commonwealth Games will be significantly downsized with just 10 sports left on the programme.
Cricket was among those that were axed after enjoying a return through T20 women’s cricket at the 2022 event in Birmingham. It was the first time cricket had appeared at the Commonwealth Games since 1998 and seen as something like an Olympic audition.
Its success helped strengthen cricket’s bid for Los Angeles Olympics inclusion after a long bid from the sport’s power brokers.
Cricket was a success at the last Commonwealth Games (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Cricket had not been part of multi-sport events throughout the 2000s as administrators in power nations India and England, particularly, resisted due to financial reasons.
But sentiment changed and there became an acceptance that cricket should expand beyond its traditional terrain of the British Commonwealth, especially the world’s biggest sports market of the U.S.
Major multi-sport events are deemed critical for smaller cricket countries, particularly in their efforts to bid and attain government funding. Cricket started to emerge in multi-sport events notably the Asian Games – boasting more sports and athlete quotas than the Olympics – in 2010, 2014 and last year.
But momentum has taken a hit after being removed from Scotland 2026 even though the Commonwealth Games is largely deemed as archaic, its relevance dwindling over the decades, and a relic of a bygone era.
Perhaps cricket can stomach that axing, but potentially not being part of the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, will sting. As I first reported last month, cricket faces exclusion in what would be a blow to the development of the sport in the baseball crazy country.
A baseball stadium in Nagoya had been proposed to be repurposed, as per reports, but those close to the coalface are facing the resignation of cricket missing out.
“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.”
India won gold at last year’s Asian Games (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images)
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.
In better news for the sport, cricket is 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 has only been part of the programme in 2017 and last year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Cricket’s bid for inclusion has been pushed by the Shah-led ACC.
