Cricket will continue to remain a part of the Asian Games and will be a medal event at the next year’s Asian Games. The Games will be hosted in Nagoya, Japan. Meanwhile, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is set to make its debut its Asian Games debut.
MMA will be introduced as a discipline under the contact sports category, alongside ju-jitsu and kurash, a traditional Central Asian form of wrestling. The sport will be contested in six events, marking another step in the OCA’s efforts to modernize the Games. This move follows the inclusion of e-sports as medal events at the COVID-delayed 2023 Games.
Cricket’s continuation comes as a boost for organisers, especially after India—one of the sport’s powerhouses—sent its men’s and women’s teams to Hangzhou. The OCA confirmed that the cricket events will take place in Japan’s Aichi prefecture, though the specific venue has yet to be determined. The sport was played in its T20 format.
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“Interest will be high, not only because of cricket’s popularity in South Asia, but also because the T20 format will be featured in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” the OCA noted in a statement.
Cricket was previously dropped from the 2018 Games in Jakarta but returned in 2023. At the 2023 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China, India won the gold medals in the men’s and the women’s categories. The men’s final was played between India and Afghanistan and was affected by rain. India was awarded the gold medal because it was ranked higher in the T20 rankings. India’s women’s team played the final against Sri Lanka and won the match by 19 runs to walk away the gold medal.
Nagoya will become the third Japanese city to host the Asian Games, following Hiroshima in 1994 and Tokyo in 1958. The 2023 Games in Hangzhou featured over 12,000 athletes from 45 countries and territories across 40 sports. China once again led the medal table, extending their dominance to 11 consecutive Asian Games.
Prakhar Sachdeo
The Sportz Planet Desk
