Cricket will make its debut at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China in November next year, and the eligibility rules that states that only passport holders can play for a nation leave some of the regions cricket teams in somewhat of a selection quandary.
The same rules will be in place for the Asian Games as are in place for the Olympics. Whilst this obviously isn’t a problem for the four Test playing nations or hosts China, many teams in the region are heavily reliant on expatriate players.
Oman have already stated their intention to field a team made up of locals, and the Emirates Cricket Board intends to do the same.
To indicate how much trouble this could be, UAE’s 24 man squad for next month’s ACC Twenty20 includes just four locally born players. That is actually down on the World Cup Qualifier, where out of the 14 players used in the tournament, five were born in the UAE.
With nationality law in the Gulf countries usually ruling out citizenship for anyone not born there, it suggests that a development programme for Emirati cricketers needs to be rolled out pretty quickly. .
One thing not known about the tournament next year is which teams will be taking part. It was originally planned that next month’s World Twenty20 tournament would serve as a qualifier, with teams from the EAP region that compete in the Asian Games, such as Japan, participating. It was planned that three teams would qualify to join the four Test playing nations plus hosts China.
However all mention of this has been removed from the Asian Cricket Council website. “All nation should apply for the participation through their national olympics association to the organizing committee,” an ACC official informed Cricket Nepal.
(Updated version of the story written by Andrew Nixon in CricketEurope.net)
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Good news for Nepal, I’d say if Nepal gets chance to participate.
…All nations should apply through ….. is rather misleading as it is sure all Asian nations are surely not participating.
Previously it was said that top three teams of ACC Trophy would be selected. That meant Nepalese Women team was already selected.
If selection is not made according to ACC trophy, then what’s the selection criteria?
P.S. There’s a mistake in the article. ‘next month’s world T20′ should be replaced with ACC T20, I guess.
Andrew Nixon in cricket europe writes that probably top three teams of Asia will be invited , since Oman, UAE are preparing. Another team will be afghanistan. If that’s true, it’s a Jhatka for Nepal cricket. It’s unfair as every country should get chance to be selected through regional qualifier, be it ACC T20, or another qualifier being played.
First of all, I would like to express my happiness as Cricket has been included in Asian games. I think this is very important for cricket lovers that they get to watch their favorite game cricket during the Asian games. There is no doubt that Cricket has been replaced all other games at least in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand, etc. I do not see any issue with getting the passport in order for them to be included in the game. Passport only provides the identity of the player but not the game. I would say, the way fitness is required in order to qualify for the game, the same way, getting the passport can be a simple step for the players and the appropriate department should respect the spirit of the players and help them get a passport easily. In the last five years, Nepal has been very strong team in Cricket but they have proved little unlucky as they win all the games and have lost the title decider games.
Thank you