Ahead of the sport’s long-awaited Olympic return, doubts are growing over whether cricket will be part of the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.

Having returned to the Asian Games, the second biggest multi-sports event, last year in Hangzhou, China, cricket faces exclusion in Nagoya in what would be a blow to the development of the sport in the baseball crazy country.

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Hopes had been raised with the Olympic Council of Asia and Japanese organizing committee publicly pushing for cricket’s inclusion. “The organizing committee is very keen on including that (cricket) in the 2026 Asian Games,” OCA deputy director general Vinod Kumar Tiwari told Reuters recently.

But it has been learned that cricket faces a major battle for inclusion with logistical challenges set to be difficult to overcome. A baseball stadium in Nagoya had been proposed to be repurposed, as per the Reuters report, but those close to the coalface are facing the resignation of cricket missing out.

Conversations remain ongoing between the Asian Cricket Council – still led by powerful India boss Jay Shah until he takes over world cricket in December – and the relevant authorities. A final decision is expected next year.

The next Asian Games – boasting more sports and athlete quotas than the Olympics – will be held less than two years before the Los Angeles Games, where cricket will end a 128-year Olympic exile.

Cricket, by some metrics the second most popular sport in the world but mostly confined to British Commonwealth countries, had traditionally shunned multi-sports events.

But sentiment has changed from the sport’s power brokers over the past decade, with more emphasis on expanding cricket beyond its traditional footprint. Cricket was played at the Asian Games in 2010, 2014 and last year 15 men’s teams and nine women’s teams competed.

Significantly India, the sport’s financial power, participated having skipped in ’10 and ’14. They won double gold in Hangzhou, showcasing their remarkable depth with a second-string men’s team, to illustrate India’s newfound commitment to multi-sports events.

India and fellow powers England had been reluctant about cricket’s involvement in the Olympics – mostly due to financial reasons – before the shift in stance. Shah, who was part of an Olympic working group behind cricket’s successful Los Angeles 2028 bid, has been a driving force and as head of the ACC sought to strengthen cricket beyond the heartland of South Asia.

Cricket in last year’s Asian Games was deemed a success and major multi-sports events are deemed critical for smaller cricket countries.

“It’s very important to get cricket into the 2026 Asian Games and put the game in front of people,” Japan Cricket Association head of operations Alan Curr told me last year. “For non-playing countries, cricket is seen as a minor sport.”