Asian Games 2010: Cricket ready to spread its wings
The Asian Games, also known as Asiad is known to be the second largest multiple sports event after the Olympic Games. Throughout history, the games have been hit by many political and security-laden issues. The participation of the countries has not been
uniformed due to the unpredictable nature of the region.
All members who are affiliated with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) are eligible to take part in the Games. The 45 members are part of the governing body of sports in Asia. As of this year, a total of 44 sports are presented in the Asiad. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Japan-c2928 and China
are the only two nations in the history of the event that have emerged as the overall winner of the games.
The 2010 Asian Games (XVI Asiad) would be the sixteenth event which would begin from November 12th, 2010. The XVI Asiad are to take place in the Guangdong province in the People’s Republic of China. The games are scheduled from November 12th
to November 27th. The games would be hosted in Guangzhou, capital of the Chinese province.
The 2010 Asian Games would bring in a total of 42 sports events as compared to 28 events in the Olympic Games. The 42 games will be featured throughout the sixteen days of the event with the most unique games like dance-sport, roller sport and dragon boat
debuting in the games. But, perhaps the most exciting sport to be making its debut in the Asian Games is Cricket.
The decision to include the sport in the event came after the International Cricket Council (ICC) “identified” China as one of the relatively new markets along with the United States to develop the game in these regions. The Chinese market is fast becoming
a popular place for investment as the tourism industry boosted after http://www.senore.com/Cricket/China-c40996 hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008.
It would be the first time the gentleman’s sport would be premiering in the Asiad. The matches will be played in the popular short form of cricket, the Twenty20 format. Men and women’s tournament would be conducted and the International Cricket Council (ICC)
Full Members of Asia would be taking part in the event. However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 and Pakistan will be not be sending their national team squads prior to their commitment with other international tours.
In 2009, India and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 pledged to send their best available teams to the Asian games in order to make the sport more appealing to the region. However, India soon declared their unavailability due to their international obligations. The decision faced
some criticism as it was being speculated that the Board of Control for Cricket in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 (BCCI) did not see the games “marketable.”
However, Pakistan and India have been mentoring China in building the cricket infra-structure and training the national men’s and women’s cricket team.
China is all set to welcome the sport in their country. The sport is little-known in the country with table-tennis, basketball, and gymnastics being their main forte. Cricket has already taken over the sub-continent as India, Pakistan, and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 are
among the top cricket playing nations. Bangladesh is also climbing up the ranks slowly and is amongst the “Test nations.” The sport has extensive media coverage throughout Asia with many blogs and television networks dedicated to the game.
And if the ticket sales of the tournament are anything to know about the interest for the sport, then China sure looks to develop their own international cricket squad. The Asian Cricket Council announced on Thursday that within hours of the tickets going
on sale, they were sold out for the first two days (November 13th and November 14th).
As there was only one ground available, the organisers opted for Twenty20 format to accommodate the men’s and women’s competitions. The organisers of the Asiad have built a 12,000-seater stadium which will be specifically used for cricket tournaments at
the Guangdong University of Technology Cricket Stadium.
China has a long way to go for making cricket as popular as in the sub-continent but the Asian Games are a starting point and it would be interesting to see how much attention the debutant sport garners in the Asian region.
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