Asian Cricket Council Convenes in Dhaka, Welcomes New Members, and Finalizes Cricket’s Inclusion with 18 Teams in Japan
Bangladesh, Dhaka: The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) convened its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday in Dhaka. This is a big step that will help cricket become more popular across the continent. A meeting of representatives from all ACC member countries took place, and the most important thing to come out of it was that everyone agreed to include cricket in the 2026 Asian Games in Japan.
“ACC has announced that cricket will be part of the upcoming Asian Games 2026 in Japan. Ten men’s teams and eight women’s teams from across the continent will compete, with the teams chosen based on their rankings,” said an ACC news statement. This is a big step forward for the sport since it gives Asian cricketing countries a high-profile stage.
Mohsin Naqvi, who is both the President of the ACC and the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, led the important meeting. Everyone from the ACC was there, which showed how important the decisions were.
Naqvi took a minute to sincerely thank Aminul Islam, the President of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), for the BCB’s great hospitality and smooth organization of the AGM. He thanked the BCB for making the ACC AGM in Dhaka the first time it had ever been held there and for establishing an atmosphere of warmth, professionalism, and significant teamwork.
The ACC family has officially welcomed three new Member nations: Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and the Philippines. This is another exciting step forward for the sport’s growth. This addition greatly expands cricket’s reach into new and developing areas of Asia, which will lead to even more diversity and growth for the sport.
At the AGM, ACC Members all agreed to keep supporting the growth and promotion of Asian Cricket. They also stressed that they would always put the sport first. At the end of the meeting, the members all said again that they were committed to a vision for the future that would promote excellence, inclusion, and the growth of cricket across the whole continent.
After the meeting, ACC President Mohsin Naqvi also talked briefly about the highly anticipated Asia Cup 2025, in addition to the announcement of the Asian Games. He said that further information on the tournament would be made public soon. “The tournament will be revealed soon. We are talking to BCCI about it and will let you know soon. “I’m very hopeful that we will be able to solve the problem,” he said, according to ESPNcricinfo. This was a hint that talks were still going on to complete plans for the famous continental competition.