The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have confirmed that Cricket will be part of the 2022 Asian Games programme, to take place at Hangzhou in China from 10th to 25th September 2022. The T20 format will be the most likeliest to be used for the Games for the medal categories. After featuring in Guangzhou (2010) and Incheon (2014) edition of the Games, Cricket was left out of the 2018 Asian Games at Jakarta and Palembang, due to non-availability of venues.
Another major milestone also planned for Hangzhou 2022 is that Oceania athletes will also be invited to take part in some of the disciplines in the Games. If allowed, then countries from the Pacific region also participate in the sports categories in 2022 Asian Games, which will act as a qualifier for the 2022 Olympics. However, Cricket will not be a part of such arrangement as it is not an Olympic sport as of date.
All 45 nations who are members of the Olympic Council of Asia are expected to compete in the Games; however, if ICC (International Cricket Council) approves the T20 matches at the Games to carry official T20I ranking points, then the Olympic Council of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and United Arab Emirates will be eligible to participate in the tournament in both Men’s and Women’s categories.
The two key decisions for Olympic Council of Asia, along with ICC and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) will be to decide the format of the sport to be played and if will be played with T20I ranking points on offer, and also the number of participants for the competition and whether a qualifying tournament will be organized to include Associate members in the region into the tournament or let them all compete.
For organizing so many games involving all the members within the two weeks of Games in both the categories will be big challenge for the organizers and ICC/ACC to deliver.
