Indian cricket team set for Asian Games debut, BCCI to send 'B' side: Report

For the first time ever an Indian cricket team will play at the Asian Games later this year. However, since the 2023 ODI World Cup will also take place around the same time, the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) will field a ‘B’ team for the Asiad, the Indian Express reported. This would be the first time the Indian cricket team would participate in Asiad, although it isn’t the first time the sport has been included in the event. Before being excluded from the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, cricket was a part of the event in 2010 and 2014, but India didn’t field a team in those. The Asian Games to be played in China Hangzhou were originally supposed to take place last year but were put off due to the country’s strict zero-Covid policy. Now the games will take place from 23 September to 8 October, which clashes with the ODI World to be played in India from 5 October to 23 November. The BCCI will forward the list of players to the Indian Olympic Association before 30 June, the report read. There wasn’t any clarity on if the BCCI was also considering sending a women’s team to the event. Earlier, the BCCI had refused to send a team to Asiad, citing pre-occupation. But now they have rethought the situation and decided to field a B team instead as the main squad would be fully engaged in the World Cup. This won’t be the first time that two Indian cricket teams would be participating in two different events at around the same time. In 2021 when the main team led by Virat Kohli was in the UK for a Test series, Shikhar Dhawan was leading another squad in a series in Sr Lanka. Earlier in 1998 also there were two Indian squads playing the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and Sahara Cup against Pakistan simultaneously. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.