The International Cricket Council is trying to include cricket in the Olympics. But BCCI’s one decision may hit that effort. BCCI authorities are not willing to send either men’s or women’s teams to the upcoming Asian Games.
The Asian Games will start from September 23 in Hangzhou, China. Cricket is in the list of sports this time. Both men and women can participate in the T20 competition in their respective categories. Had India sent a team, the team could have ensured two medals from cricket. Harmanpreet Kaur are favourites in claiming the gold. But the BCCI has decided not to send the team to the Asian Games.
The One Day World Cup is on October. Before that BCCI officials are not willing to send Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and co. to the Asian Games. They are not willing to send second team or under 19 team either. Women’s team is also not being sent. As the reason for not sending the team, the BCCI has informed that it is not possible to send any team to the Asian Games for BCCI’s own pre-determined schedule. The conflict between the two sports organizations however, is also responsible for this.
The Indian Olympic Association authorities are a bit upset with this position of the Indian Cricket Board. Bhupender Bajwa, India’s Chef de Mission at the Asian Games, said,
“We are participating in all the games in which we have qualified, except one. Only, any cricket team isn’t going. We have contacted the Indian Cricket Board through e-mail three-four times, because the organizers have to send the list of names within a certain period. They (BCCI) are always busy. In the end, they said that they will not send a team.”
On the other hand, the Indian Cricket Board’s complaint is against the Indian Olympic Association. A board official said,
“IOA e-mailed us. But that e-mail came the day before the last day to send names. Before that we had finalized the women’s team schedule. Under these circumstances it is not possible to send a women’s team to the Asian Games. The women’s team will participate in another competition at that time.”
Coinciding Asian Games with the tri- series among India, South Africa and New Zealand may trigger the cold rift between IOS and BCCI
BCCI has scheduled a tri-nation series for the Indian women’s with South Africa and New Zealand during the Asian Games.
However, BCCI has a precedent of sending two national teams to two places in the past. In 1998, one team participated in the Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur and another team went to Canada to play the Sahara Cup against Pakistan at the same time. At the same time in 2021, BCCI send Shikhar Dhawan led team to play a series against Sri Lanka. Virat Kohli led another team led in England to play Tests. But BCCI has no plans to send a second team for the Asian Games this time.
The Asian Games were supposed to be held in 2022. But China did not host the Games last year due to the Covid situation. It was decided to postpone by one year. Similarly, the Asian Games will be held from September 23 to October 8.
For more updates, follow https://twitter.com/Crickdom7/
