Cricket will be played for the first time at the next Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010. The decision to approve a proposal to include cricket in Guangzhou was taken at the Olympic Council of Asia’s General Assembly in Kuwait on April 17.
“The decision to approve a proposal to include cricket in Guangzhou was taken at the Olympic Council of Asia’s (OCA) general assembly in Kuwait this week,” Asian Cricket Council (ACC) said on its website.
“India and Pakistan were the drivers. Pakistan and India will come with their best teams because it will be a big competition. Asia’s four-Test playing nations have committed to sending their ‘best available teams’,” OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah is quoted as saying on the website.
Guangzhou Games will be played Nov 12-27 in 2010. It remains to be seen if the cricket teams of the top Asian countries will be free during this period to field their ‘best teams’.
OCA General Secretary Randhir Singh, also the Secretary of Indian Olympic Association, said China, although not a cricketing country, was keen to have cricket in Guangzhou. “As far as we are concerned we are ready,” he said.
Cricket’s expected inclusion at Guangzhou follows an announcement late last year that the 2008 South Asian Games in Bangladesh will feature cricket for the first time.
Although the International Cricket Council (ICC) has a six-year Future Tours Programme (FTP) in place for all 10 Test playing countries running up to 2012, it remains to be seen if the competing nations in the Asian Games will send their best players.
In the month of the games, three of the four Asian top Test playing nations – India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – will be busy in home series against various countries. India will be hosting New Zealand for three Tests and five One-day Internationals.
Pakistan will be hosting South Africa for three Tests and five ODIs and Sri Lanka will host the West Indies for as many matches. Only Bangladesh, as per the FTP, are free in that month, as of now. The exact dates of these series have not been fixed.
But since the Asian Games dates cannot be changed, it will be for the cricket playing nations to adjust their schedules keeping in mind the games’ dates.
The previous attempt to have cricket included in a multi-sports competition, the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, was a bad experience for the organisers. India did not send its best team to Kuala Lumpur as the game clashed with the ODI series against Pakistan in Toronto, though Sachin Tendulkar was part of that mixed team. South Africa won the gold, while India failed to win even the bronze.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has been trying to convince the cricket boards of the continent to field their ‘best’ teams. And because of the absence of a guarantee cricket had not been included in the biggest sports extravaganza so far.
It remains to be seen how many top players of that time will turn up in Guangzhou. In all, 42 sports will be featured in Guangzhou, three more than in the 2006 Doha Games. The Olympics have 28 disciplines.