Cricket’s journey within the Asian Video games has seen notable adjustments over the previous decade. In 2010, Bangladesh gained the inaugural match, and Sri Lanka claimed victory in 2014, with Afghanistan ending because the runner-up and India remaining absent each occasions.
Nevertheless, current years have introduced a shift in notion. The Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI) are exhibiting curiosity in multi-sport occasions just like the Commonwealth Video games and Asian Video games. India’s girls’s cricket group gained silver on the Commonwealth Video games in Birmingham, and now each males’s and ladies’s groups are set to compete within the Asian Video games, aligning with the ICC’s aim of Olympic inclusion in 2028.
Whereas cricket’s destiny within the Olympics rests with the Worldwide Olympic Committee, the ICC is actively advocating for it. They emphasise the large cricket fan base, notably in South Asia and the USA. The potential for elevated media rights earnings is a big incentive.
The ICC’s efforts embrace forming an Olympic Working Group and proposing T20 cricket as the perfect format for the Olympics.
Whereas the IOC is anticipated to achieve a conclusion throughout its session in Mumbai in October, India’s participation within the Asian Video games is being labelled as a step in the fitting route.
“The Olympics brings individuals collectively — not simply cross-country and cross-continent, but additionally cross-sport. And, that’s why I’m completely in favour of cricket coming into the Olympics. Will probably be an excellent addition if the self-discipline makes it to the Olympics particularly for India, as a result of for us to get our girls’s group and our males’s group in cricket into the Olympics not simply provides us extra probability of successful extra gold medals or silver medals or bronze, but additionally contains all different sports activities as nicely.” Leander Paes (Olympic medallist)
“Because the ICC is retaining India as a benchmark, the BCCI’s choice to area a powerful girls’s group and an equally competent males’s group is a sign that India has additionally warmed as much as the concept of together with the game within the multi-sport occasions,” says a former ICC board member, including: “T20 cricket has modified the dynamics of cricket over the past one-and-a-half decade, and it’s solely apt that this format has been most popular by the ICC for the Olympics bid.”
Traditionally, cricket’s Olympic inclusion has confronted challenges resulting from amenities and scheduling. Nonetheless, the Asian Video games function a vital platform for India’s males’s group, marking its multi-discipline occasion return since 1998. Ruturaj Gaikwad has been named captain for the Asian Video games T20 competitors. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, and Jitesh Sharma additionally characteristic within the 15-member squad.
With the lads’s ODI World Cup scheduled to start in India on October 5, two days earlier than the tip of the Asian Video games cricket occasion, the BCCI has named a second-string males’s facet. The identical goes for different Asian heavyweights as nicely, taking the sheen off the match with the first-choice gamers pressured to sit down out. Nevertheless, the Indian girls’s squad in Hangzhou shall be at full power.
India’s participation boosts cricket’s ongoing quest to be a part of the Olympics.
SQUADS
India girls’s cricket squad
Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Pooja Vastrakar, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wicket-keeper), Anusha Bareddy
Standby gamers: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque
India males’s cricket squad
Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wicket-keeper), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wicket-keeper)
Standby gamers: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan
SCHEDULE
Ladies’s cricket schedule
19/9/2023
Match 1: Hong Kong vs China – 9:30 AM (Spherical 1)
Match 2: Nepal vs Singapore – 2:30 PM (Spherical 1)
20/9/2023
Match 3: Indonesia vs Malaysia – 9:30 AM (Spherical 1)
Match 4: Winner of Match 1 vs Winner of Match 2 – 2:30 PM (Spherical 1)
21/9/2023
Match 5: UAE vs Bhutan – 9:30 AM (Spherical 1)
Match 6: Thailand vs Oman – 2:30 PM (Spherical 1)
22/9/2023
Match 7: India vs Winner of Match 4 – 9:30 AM (Quarterfinal 1)
Match 8: Pakistan vs Winner of Match 3 – 2:30 PM (Quarterfinal 2)
23/9/2023
OPENING CEREMONY (REST DAY)
24/9/2023
Match 9: third VS Winner of Match 4 – 9:30 AM (Quarterfinal 3)
Match 10: 4th VS Winner of Match 5 – 2:30 PM (Quarterfinal 4)
25/9/2023
Match 11: Winner of QF 1 vs QF 2 – 9:30 AM (Semifinal 1)
Match 12: Winner vs QF 3 vs QF 4- 2:30 PM (Semifinal 2)
26/9/2023
Match 13: Loser of SF1&SF2 – 9:30 AM (Third-place match)
Match 14: Winner of SF1&SF2 – 2:30 PM (Ultimate)
Males’s cricket schedule
28/9/2023
Match 1: Oman vs Saudi Arabia – 9:00 AM (Spherical 1)
Match 2: Hong Kong vs Singapore – 2:00 PM (Spherical 1)
29/9/2023
Match 3: Malaysia vs Bahrain – 9:00 AM (Spherical 1)
Match 4: Nepal vs Indonesia – 2:00 PM (Spherical 1)
30/3/2023
Match 5: Qatar vs Kuwait – 9:00 AM (Spherical 1)
Match 6: UAE vs Bhutan – 2:00 PM (Spherical 1)
1/10/2023
Match 7: Afghanistan vs China – 9:00 AM (Spherical 2)
Match 8: Winner of Match 1 vs Winner of Match 2 – 2:00 PM (Spherical 2)
2/10/2023
Match 9: Winner of Match 3 vs Winner of Match 4 – 9:00 AM (Spherical 2)
Match 10: Winner of Match 5 vs Winner of Match 6 – 2:00 PM (Spherical 2)
4/10/2023
Match 11: Pakistan vs Winner of Match 8 – 9:00 AM (Quarterfinal 1)
Match 12: Sri Lanka vs Winner of Match 9 – 2:00 PM (Quarterfinal 2)
5/10/2023
Match 13: Bangladesh vs Winner of Match 10 – 9:00 AM (Quarterfinal 3)
Match 14: India vs Winner of Match 7 – 2:00 PM (Quarterfinal 4)
6/10/2023
Match 15: Winner QF1 vs Winner QF4 – 9:00 AM (Semifinal 1)
Match 16: Winner QF2 vs Winner QF3 – 2:00 PM (Semifinal 2)
7/10/2023
Match 17: Loser SF1 vs Loser SF2 – 9:00 AM (Bronze medal match)
Match 18: Winner SF1 vs Winner SF2 – 2:00 PM (Ultimate- Gold medal match)
**QF- Quarterfinal
**SF- Semifinal