Amidst the fanfare over cricket’s return to Olympics in 2028, the sport is yet to make the cut among the confirmed events for the next Asian Games scheduled to be hosted by Japan in 2026. The head of Cricket Operations of Japan Cricket Association (JCA) Alan Curr has revealed that the local organising committee has claimed cricket isn’t part of the next Asiad.
“…as far as we’ve been told by the local organising committee, cricket is not in the 2026 Asian Games,” Curr was quoted as saying by Emerging Cricket website.
Curr was responding to a query over a recent article by news agency Reuters that claimed that a baseball stadium in Nagoya will be repurposed for the cricket competition at the 2026 Asiad in Japan.
“Look, if cricket is actually included in the games, obviously that would be fantastic. However, we have followed up with the organising committee who were pretty clear. There are 41 other sports they are going to deliver for the Games and cricket is not one of them at this stage. Unless someone tells us any differently, we won’t be making any plans to take our teams to participate in this event,” Curr told Emerging Cricket.
Cricket was part of the Asian Games in Hangzhou with India winning gold in both the men and women categories.
In an interview to Cricbuzz, Curr expressed JCA’s helplessness over the matter.
“The JCA has no power or ability to influence on this matter. It is down to the OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) and the local organising committee,” he said.
Cricket is part of Los Angeles Olympics 2028 making its return to the Summer Games for the first time since 1900 Paris Olympics.
On the other hand, OCA head Randhir Singh is positive that cricket will be part of the next Asian Games. “That is my understanding. It’s an Olympic sport now. I have inquired about it and I am hopeful it will be there in Nagoya,” Randhir said.
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