Asian Games Cricket - All You Need to Know

The fourth edition of Asian Games cricket is set to be held in Nagoya, in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, with the women’s final scheduled for September 22 and the men’s tournament concluding on October 3.

India are the defending champions in both the men’s and women’s events having claimed gold at Hangzhou in 2022.

We take a look at all you need to know for the competition.

What are the Asian Games?

Widely regarded as the second-largest multi-sport event in the world after the Olympics, the Asian Games brings elite athletes in over 40 sports together from 45 countries every four years.

It will be the fourth time in the last five editions that cricket has been included in the Asian Games, after its debut in 2010.

India are defending champions in both men’s and women’s cricket events. The women defeated Sri Lanka in the last edition, while the men claimed gold by virtue of their higher seeding than gold medal match adversaries Afghanistan, after the final was washed out by rain.

Pakistan are multiple gold-medal winners on the women’s side (2010 and 2014), while Bangladesh (2010), Sri Lanka (2014) and India (2022) have claimed men’s tournament honours once each. Afghanistan are looking to go one better after three consecutive silver medals.

Format and qualification

The men’s and women’s tournaments are not identical at the games in Nagoya.

On the men’s side, the event is a 10-team tournament in two phases. First, the six-lowest seeded teams are split into two groups of three, with the top two teams in each progressing to the knockout stages. Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal make up Group A, while Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman take part in Group B.

India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh have a first round bye and go straight to the quarter-final phase.

On the women’s side, the tournament is a straight knockout competition with eight teams.

Full Members of the ICC were granted automatic qualification for both men’s and women’s disciplines, as well as hosts Japan. 

Four teams (Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal and Oman) claimed spots in the men’s event via the qualifier, with China, Malaysia and Thailand sealing their spot for the women’s event.

Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming, captain of the Japan men’s national team and the country’s most-prolific run-scorer, knows how significant a moment like a home Asian Games can be.

“The opportunity to potentially compete against some of the strongest cricket nations in the world on one of the biggest sporting stages in Asia is something that can inspire the next generation of players across Japan,” Kadowaki-Fleming told ICC Digital back in May.

“Having a world-class venue in such an important city (Nagoya) creates huge opportunities for the growth and visibility of the game. For Japan Cricket to continue developing long-term, having a legacy turf cricket facility in Nagoya is absolutely essential. 

“It gives us the ability to host major events, develop local players, and create a lasting home for cricket in one of the key regions of the country.”

Fans in Nisshin supporting Japan at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup East Asia-Pacific Qualifier.

Fixtures

On the women’s side, hosts Japan drew India in the opener on September 17, with Pakistan’s fixture against Thailand on the other side of the draw held on the same day.

The winner of Japan/India will take on the winner of the September 18 meeting between Bangladesh and China, while the Pakistan/Thailand winner meets the winner of the September 18 match between Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

The two semi-finals will be played on September 20, with the bronze and gold medal matches on September 22.

Preliminary stage action on the men’s side begins on September 24 with a match in each group over three days. Japan takes on Afghanistan to begin Group A while Hong Kong, China faces Malaysia over Group B. 

Matchday two sees Afghanistan back up to play Nepal and Hong Kong, China take on Oman, and on matchday three Japan faces Nepal and Malaysia meets Oman.

Men’s Quarter-finals then begin on September 28, when India face the Group A runner-up and Pakistan take on the Group B runner-up. On September 29, Sri Lanka will play the winner of Group A and Bangladesh will meet the Group B winner.

Semi-finals will be played on October 1, with the bronze and gold medal finals two days later.

The Japan national team thank fans for their support in Nagoya.

Venue

The Nisshin Cricket Ground lies in the middle of the Korogi Sports Park, in the outskirts of Nagoya.

The venue ticked the boxes required of it during the recent East Asia-Pacific T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Qualifier, which acted as a test event for the upcoming Games.

The wicket used is a revolutionary hybrid surface, with characteristics of play compared to pitches in Pakistan that offer both bounce and turn.

“The outfield was really good and the pitch played well. So, there's huge positives first from the ground side,” Japan Cricket Association CEO Naoki Alex Miyaji told ICC Digital back in May at the East Asia-Pacific Qualifier.

“We also had a lot of media coverage and hundreds of people turned up for the event, seeing cricket for the first time and they seemed to enjoy it really well. 

“It's the first time that we're going to have some Full Members come here and play cricket and I think one of the things that we want the local community to understand, realise or get excited about is knowing how big this is in cricket, and it's on their front door.”

“There are limited tickets available, so once these fixtures are set and the tickets are available internationally as well, they're just going to go out, (be) sold out very quickly."

Temporary stands are also up at the venue that can accommodate 2000 fans.

Squads

Four of the eight women’s teams have submitted their squads for the tournament, including hosts Japan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Women’s Squads

Bangladesh: Nigar Sultana (c), Nahida Akter, Sharmin Akhter, Dilara Akter, Marufa Akter, Shorna Akter, Juairiya Ferdous, Rabeya Khan, Fahima Khatun, Sultana Khatun, Sanjida Akter, Ritu Moni, Sobhana Mostary, Sharmin Sultana, Fariha Trisna

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, G Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav, Nandni Sharma

Japan: Mai Yanagida (c), Erika Oda, Ahilya Chandel, Ayumi Fujikawa, Hinase Goto, Haruna Iwasaki, Shimako Kato, Ayaka Kato-Stafford, Elena Kusuda-Nairn, Akari Nishimura, Meg Ogawa, Kurumi Ota, Seika Sumi, Erika Toguchi-Quinn, Nonoha Yasumoto

Pakistan: Fatima Sana (c), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Zafar, Eman Naseer, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Humna Bilal, Momina Riasat, Muneeba Ali, Nashra Sundhu, Saira Jabeen, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Tasmia Rubab, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani

On the men’s side, six of the ten squads have been named.

Men’s Squads

Afghanistan: Darwish Rasooli (c), Mohammad Ishaq, Mohammad Akram, Hassan Eisakhil, Khalid Taniwal, Imran Mir, Faisal Shinozada, Najibullah Zadran, Farmanullah, Ismat Alam, Karim Janat, Nangyal Kharoti, Arab Gul Momand, Faridoon Dawoodzai, Abdollah Ahmadzai

Bangladesh: Litton Das (c), Tanzid Hasan, Parvez Hossain Emon, Mohammed Saif Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Tawhid Hridoy, Musaddek Hossain Saikat, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Rishad Hossain, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed, Mohammed Saifuddin, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud.

India: Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

Japan: Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming (c), Charlie Hara-Hinze, Benjamin Ito-Davis, Alester Kadowaki-Fleming, Kohei Kubota, Jake Kusuda-Nairn, Wataru Miyauchi, Reo Sakurano-Thomas, Alex Shirai-Patmore, Shoma Sugaya-Slater, Declan Suzuki, Tsuyoshi Takada, Ibrahim Takahashi, Makoto Taniyama, Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake

Nepal: Dipendra Singh Airee (c), Lokesh Bam, Kushal Bhurtel, Gulshan Jha, Sundeep Jora, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Kushal Malla, Sher Malla, Rohit Paudel, Lalit Rajbanshi, Aarif Sheikh, Aasif Sheikh, Nandan Yadav

Oman: Sufyan Mehmood (c), Muzaffar Shiralkar, Faris Al Balushi, Issa Al Balushi, Mohammed Al Balushi, Nawed Al Balushi, Qais Al Balushi, Shuaib Al Balushi, Waheed Al Balushi, Wasim Al Balushi, Zubair Al Balushi, Abdul Jalil, Mohammed Othman, Sameer Othman, Ahmed Al Zadjali

Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (c), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Arafat Minhas, Haider Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Saad Masood, Saim Ayub, Sufyan Moqim, Usman Khan