Cricket now official in asian games BHASKAR GYAWALI AND ABHAYA RAJ JOSHI KATHMANDU, May 13: The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has agreed to include cricket in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) informed in its letter to the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) that the ACC and OCA had officially agreed to include cricket in the Asian Games after a detailed meeting with the Guangzhou Asian Games Authority this week. Both men´s and women´s cricket teams will participate in the Games. Cricket will be played in the twenty-twenty format. Four one-day playing Asian countries--India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh-- and host nation China will automatically qualify for the Games, whereas other Asian countries will have to play a qualifying round to fight it out for three spots. The ACC has said in its letter to CAN that the qualifiers will be held later this year. CAN is very optimistic about Nepal´s chances of qualifying for the Games as the Olympic Committee rules are clear about squad members´ nationalities. Over the years, Nepal has been crying foul over other Asian teams such as Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Hong Kong fielding teams that included expatriates from India and Pakistan. The presence of players from the subcontinent allowed these Asian nations to significantly boost their teams´ capabilities. But now these countries can´t include expatriate players as only national passport holders can play in the Asian and Olympic Games, a rule that should benefit Nepal. "Now the real strength of these teams will be on display," CAN president Binay Raj Pandey says. "We never use expatriate players, which was the main reason for our defeats in the past," says Pandey. Nepal will be a very likely contender to qualify in the Asian games, but after qualifying it will have to lock horns with the cricketing giants, such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. And that will be the real acid test.

Good News for growing nepali cricket team. I hope they will do it.