India to miss Twenty20 cricket in Asian Games

AP

Mumbai, 02 June 2010: India will not send cricket teams to the Asian Games in November, despite being a key driver in getting the sport included on the program in China.

Ratnakar Shetty, a top official with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, cited prior international commitments for India skipping the men’s and women’s Twenty20 cricket tournaments at the Games in Guangzhou, China, from Nov. 12-27.

Shetty said on Tuesday that the BCCI already had informed organizers in China.

Asia’s other test-ranked nations—Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh—are likely to send cricket teams to the Games. A dozen other teams entered qualifying for three other spots in the tournament.

India will be hosting New Zealand for three tests and five one-day internationals in November.

The Olympic Council of Asia announced after its General Assembly meeting last year that cricket would be among five sports making a debut on the program for the 16th edition of the Games.

At the time, OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah described India and Pakistan as “the drivers” for getting cricket included on the program for the first time and vowed that their best teams would enter.

Indian Olympic Association secretary general Randhir Singh, who is also secretary general of the Olympic Council of Asia, said he’d write to the Board of Control for Cricket in India expressing his disappointment and asking it to reconsider before the June 16 deadline for entries.

“I’m very, very disappointed. It really hurts because we were really keen to have cricket in this multi-discipline event,” Randhir was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India. He said it was now up to the Asian Cricket Council to resolve matter.

“The ACC worked really hard to get cricket included in the Asian Games. So it is ACC’s responsibility to take up the issue with the BCCI. It will be a big embarrassment for OCA if India, where cricket is (like) a religion, does not participate in the Asian Games,” Randhir said.

“This is particularly sad because cricket is a major sport in our country and we expected medals from the Asian Games.”
Randhir rejected the BCCI’s stance that it already had a full calendar, saying the national cricket board was aware of the Asian Games dates.

“The Games dates were out four years ago, so it was not at wise on their part to back out at the last moment,” he said.