BCCI takes key decisions in Council Meet; approves India's participation in Asian Games among other things

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

India (BCCI) in its 19th apex Council meet on Friday decided to send both the men's and women's criclet teams to participate in the Asian Games which are scheduled to be held in September 2023 at Hangzhou, China. With the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup scheduled to commence on October 5, the cricket governing body has announced to send a second string team of men. Nonetheless, women's team will mark their presence in full strength.

«However, considering the overlap of schedule of the Asian Games with ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, BCCI will select from the players not participating in the World Cup to play in the Asian Games,» BCCI said in a release today. In a letter, BCCI stated that fielding a squad in the Asian Games will be difficult given the busy international calendar. India will be the favourite to win gold in both the men's and women's events, ANI reported.

«Through effective planning, communication and coordination, the BCCI aims to navigate those challenges successfully and contribute to the national cause by fielding a team in both men's and women's categories in line with the Government of India's directions,» the board said. The Asian Games 2023 will commence on September 23 and conclude on October 8. While this is the first time that India will participate in the cricket event, Asian games have featured cricket twice- in 2010 and in 2014.

Played in T20 format, Asian Games Cricket has been accorded international status by the apex cricketing body, the International Council of Cricket (ICC). For men's competition, Bangladesh were crowned champions in the maiden edition in 2010, while Sri Lanka went on to emerge victorious in Asian Games Cricket in 2014. However, for women's tournament, Pakistan has won both