Asian Games 2023: Pre-occupied Indian cricket teams won't participate

The men’s and women’s Indian cricket teams will not be part of the upcoming Asian Games 2023, Bhupender Bajwa, India’s chef de mission for the continental meet, has confirmed.  

The Asian Games are scheduled in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8 this year. 

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said that the schedule for the men’s and women’s teams was already fixed and hence, there will be no participation at the continental event.

“We have entries in all sports except one – cricket (team) isn’t going,” Bhupender Bajwa told Indian Express. “They said they are preoccupied. We sent three-four emails to them (BCCI) but when we had to send entries to the organisers, they said they won’t go.”

As per the Future Tours Programme (FTP), the Indian women’s cricket team is scheduled to play South Africa and New Zealand in limited overs series during the period. The men’s team will be competing in the ODI World Cup at home from October 5 to November 19. 

Cricket made its Asian Games debut in 2010 and was included in the 2014 edition. India, however, skipped both the editions. The sport was left out of the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and has made a return at the Hangzhou Games. 

The India cricket teams, however, have been part of the Commonwealth Games. The BCCI fielded a side in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. More recently, the Indian women’s cricket team won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 held in Birmingham, England.