BCCI to Field Men & Women Teams as Cricket Returns to Asian Games 2023: Report

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is planning to field the Indian men’s and women’s teams at the Asian Games in what will be a T20 contest. The event is scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8.

According to an Indian Express report, the men’s team will be a ‘B Squad’ as the main team will be in the middle of the 50-over World Cup to be played at home from October 5 to November 23. On the other hand, the first-string women’s team participate in the Asiad. It has been learned that the Indian cricket board will be forwarding the list of players to the Indian Olympic Association before June 30.

Cricket was part of the 2010 and 2014 editions of the Asiad. However, India didn’t field a team. Back in 2018, the cricket was left out in Jakarta but this year, it’s set to return in China, which was initially supposed to be held last year but was postponed due to the country’s zero-Covid policy.

The report further stated that earlier when cricket was part of the Asiad, the BCCI had cited prior commitments as the reason for not entering the men’s and women’s teams for the continental event.

“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 organisers, they said they won’t go,” India’s chef de mission for the Asian Games, Bhupender Bajwa had told the national daily.

Two Indian teams at a time

This isn’t the first time when two separate Indian teams will compete in two different parts of the world. In 2021, the BCCI had sent a second-string team to Sri Lanka for a bilateral series comprising 3 ODIs and as many T20Is while the Virat Kohli-led senior side was in England for the Patuadi trophy.

Led by Shikhar Dhawan and Rahul Dravid as the head coach, a team full of youngsters competed in the island nation and won the ODIs 2-1 but lost the T20Is 1-2 after more than half of the players were unavailable due to Covid.

Even in 1998, one Indian team competed at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur while the other locked horns with Pakistan in the Sahara Cup.