Asian Games facilities leave top teams uneasy

The cricket facilities for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 have suddenly come under scrutiny among continental boards, with concerns over their quality and readiness. The issues are two-fold — the venue and accommodation.

At the recent Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Bangkok, these issues were discussed, with the concerns coming mainly from the top teams — “from the big boys,” as a source put it. He was referring to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the Test-playing nations in the continent. There are 10 teams in the men’s category and eight in the women’s category.

These teams are understood to be unhappy with the accommodation options being offered. There are three choices before the sides — stay in a city and travel to the venue by bullet train, stay on a ship that is anchored nearby, or opt for marquee tent accommodation.

None of the options are ideal for the big stars of the top sides, and there is an impression among members that the ACC, under Pakistan’s Mohsin Naqvi, may have delayed acting. While continental bodies governing other sports have proactively made accommodation bookings for their teams well in advance, the ACC did not do so.

As for the venue, it is a makeshift facility with no proper dressing rooms — much like grounds in other Associate countries. ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta recently posted about it, saying the venue is getting ready but work still needs to be done, and attached a video of the ground, which looks quite green.

“...is almost ready and is set to be unveiled at the20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026. There is still some work to be done before it can welcome 10 men’s and 8 women’s teams from Asia and match officials as well as fans from across the world but the team ACC and ICC is on the job (sic),” Gupta’s cautious social media post read.

The Asian Games website on the venue says, “This facility is a sports park located in Nisshin City, where a cricket ground was developed for the Asian Games. It is the second facility in Japan to feature a natural grass pitch that meets the requirements for hosting international competitions.” In May, Japan hosted an ICC pathway tournament.

An ACC member told Cricbuzz that a team will be sent to inspect the facilities, but there is a perception that it could be too late in the day. Closer home, sources within the BCCI and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) revealed that there had been a discussion on the matter and that a member of the BCCI operations team was to visit Japan to review the arrangements. There is no information on whether the member actually took the flight, but he had not travelled there as of early this week.

Cricbuzz reached out to Japan Cricket Association (JCA) CEO Alex Miyaji, but there was no immediate response.

The BCCI is sending full-strength India sides, led by regular captains Shreyas Iyer and Harmanpreet Kaur. Some reports have suggested that India will send B teams, but at the time of publishing this report, there had been no such development. Officials say it is too late to change the squads now, except in the event of an injury to a player or players, as in the case of Jemimah Rodrigues, who has been replaced by Pratika Rawal.

The competitions, in T20 format, will begin on September 17, two days before the official opening of the Games (on September 19 to October 4), and will run until October 3, with women’s final on September 22 and men’s gold medal clash on October 3. There are suggestions that the Indian men’s team will play a friendly game against Japan on September 22, but officials of the BCCI and JCA did not confirm this.

Click here to read article