New Delhi:
Olympic Council of Asia Secretary General Randhir Singh on Tuesday lashed out at the BCCI for the decision not to send teams to the Asian Games in China, saying it poured cold water on Asian Cricket Council's efforts to get cricket included in multi-sport events.
"I'm very, very disappointed because we were really keen to have cricket in multi-discipline events," Randhir said.
"The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) worked really hard to get cricket included in the Asian Games but BCCI's decision is very disappointing," said the OCA top official, who is also the Indian Olympic Association Secretary General.
BCCI today cited international commitments and announced that neither the men's nor the women's team would go to Guangzhou which hosts the Asian Games from November 12-27.
BCCI has always been reluctant to send teams to multi-discipline events and they sent a second-string squad to the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
"This is not the first time that BCCI backed out from a multi-discipline event," Randhir said.
Organisers of the Delhi Commonwealth Games were also keen to have Twenty20 cricket but the BCCI was not.
The Cricket Board insisted it did not want to promote Twenty20 cricket while Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi said the format could be changed but the BCCI needed to make up their mind if they really wanted cricket in the Games.
"We are not insisting on whether it should be Twenty20 or 50 overs. It is for the ICC (cricket's world governing body) and the BCCI to decide," Kalmadi had said.