Cricket's future in doubt at Asiad

Guangzhou: With India's no show making cricket's debut in the Asian Games a tame affair, the sport's future in the event seems in doubt and desperate efforts were on to save it from being left out of the 2014 edition in Incheon, South Korea.

The Indian Cricket Board's refusal to send teams for the 16th Asian Games, where the sport would make its debut in the Twenty20 format, has now created doubts over whether it would be a part of the 2014 roster.

The doubts over cricket's axing have grown after 2014 hosts Incheon kept cricket out of the list of events they proposed on Thursday.

Sources said the Asian Cricket Council is making last-ditch efforts to retain the sport on the Asian Games schedule.

The BCCI had cited prior international commitments as the reason for not sending the team here for the Games starting on Saturday.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) had last year stated that a maximum of 35 sports -- 28 Olympic and seven others -- would be part of the Asian Games roster.

Incheon wants to include baseball, bowling, kabaddi, sepaktakraw, softball, squash and wushu apart from the 28 from the 2016 Olympics roster.

Cricket's last appearance at a multi-sport event was at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

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