BCCI Flags Asian Games 2026 Cricket Facilities In Japan

The BCCI is unhappy with player facilities for the Asian Games 2026 cricket tournament in Japan. News agency ANI reported that a board source described dressing rooms pitched in tents and washrooms 500 metres away. Hotel rooms were called too small. An observer will be sent to Aichi-Nagoya. A second-string India squad is one option if nothing changes.

The source was blunt. "Dressing rooms were set up in tents and washrooms were just 500 m away from those tents," the official told ANI. On the accommodation: "hotel rooms are really small, and it is a big concern." On the consequence: "If arrangements are not up to the mark, we could consider sending a B team there."

The complaints attributed to a board source

ANI reported that the Asian Cricket Council shares the concern, and that officials raised it at an ACC meeting with Japanese organisers. "BCCI and ACC are not happy with the facilities and arrangements in Japan, and the board will send an observer there," the source said.

No named official has spoken. The board has published no statement confirming or denying a second-string squad. Everything in circulation traces to the ANI report of 28 August, carried since by The Tribune, India TV, Deccan Chronicle and others.

Korogi Athletic Park and the calendar

The cricket is at Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi Prefecture. The women's T20 tournament runs from 17 to 22 September. The men's follows, 24 September to 3 October. Ten teams are in the men's draw.

The squads India has already named

Both squads are public. Shreyas Iyer captains the men. Harmanpreet Kaur captains the women. The men's group named by the board:

• Shreyas Iyer, captain
• Sanju Samson
• Abhishek Sharma
• Ishan Kishan
• Shivam Dube
• Tilak Varma
• Axar Patel
• Washington Sundar
• Nitish Kumar Reddy
• Varun Chakravarthy
• Ravi Bishnoi
• Harshit Rana
• Arshdeep Singh
• Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
• Jasprit Bumrah

The women's squad includes Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh.

The draw and India's entry point

The men's format follows the 2023 edition. The four top seeds go straight to the quarter-finals. Six other teams play preliminary matches from 24 to 26 September. Quarter-finals fall on 28 and 29 September, semi-finals on 1 October, the medal matches on 3 October.

A change of personnel would not change that route. India seeded in the top four would start on 28 September, a month after the complaints were first reported. Sony Sports Network holds the television rights in India.

The women's tournament comes first, on 17 September. Any inspection therefore has a shorter runway than the men's dates suggest. No travel date for the observer has been announced, and the board has not named who will go. Harmanpreet Kaur's squad is due in Japan a week before the men's competition opens.