Cricket included for 2006 Asian Games

Cricket is set to feature in the Asian Games for the first time, after being included in the itinerary for the 2006 tournament in Qatar. A six-nation event has already been agreed in principle, with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to be joined by two other nations, in a format that will be very similar to the Asia Cup, which gets underway in Sri Lanka next week.

"Cricket is set to make its debut," said Randhir Singh, the general secretary of the Olympic Council of Asia. "Qatar will talk to Jagmohan Dalmiya, the Asian Cricket Council chief, to draw out a final programme. We expect all the participating countries to send their best teams."

The news comes in the wake of the ECB's suggestion, that Twenty20 cricket ought to become an Olympic event. Cricket featured in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, where South Africa beat Australia in the final, but has not been part of the Olympic calendar since 1900, when Great Britain defeated France in the final in Paris.