The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has confirmed that cricket will remain a part of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, to be held in Japan from September 19 to October 4. The call to retain cricket was taken during the meeting between the Olympic Council of Asia and the organising committee earlier this week.
“The latest development in the compilation of the sports programme came at the 41st meeting of the AINAGOC Board of Directors at Nagoya City Hall on Monday, April 28, when cricket and Mixed Martial Arts were both formally approved,” the OCA said.
This will be the fourth time that cricket will feature in the Asian Games. The first two times – at Guangzhou 2010 and Incheon 2014 – the games were not granted an international status. But when cricket returned to the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, the matches were deemed T20 internationals.
At the 2026 Asian Games, the matches will again be played in T20 format and held in Aichi Prefecture but the exact venues are yet to be finalised.
“The venue for cricket will be in Aichi prefecture but the exact location has not been decided. Interest will be high, not only because of cricket’s popularity in South Asia in particular but also because the T20 format will be included in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028,” the OCA said.
Cricket will be among 41 sports featured at the Games, which are expected to see participation from 15,000 athletes and officials representing the OCA’s 45 National Olympic Committees.
Cricket will also feature in 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as a six-team competition in both the men’s and the women’s categories. It will be the sport’s first appearance in the Olympics since 1900 in Paris, where Great Britain beat France by 158 runs in the final of the two-team tournament.
The OCA also confirmed that a “floating Athletes’ Village” a cruise ship docked in Nagoya Port – will accommodate 4,600 athletes and officials. However, cricketers will be accommodated in hotels, alongside athletes from badminton and football.
In the men’s category in 2023, India won the gold, Afghanistan silver and Bangladesh bronze. In the women’s, India and Bangladesh were once again the gold and bronze medallists, while the silver went to Sri Lanka.
The other countries participating across the two categories were Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.