Cricket Confirmed for Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya

Cricket has been retained for the Asian Games 2026, while Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is set to make its debut at the continental meet, the Olympic Council of Asia has confirmed.

"The latest development in the compilation of the sports programme came at the 41st meeting of the AINAGOC Board of Directors at Nagoya City Hall on Monday, April 28, when cricket and Mixed Martial Arts were both formally approved," the OCA said.

This will be the fourth time that cricket will be making an appearance in the Asian Games programme. Cricket matches at the 2026 Asian Games will be held in Aichi but the exact venues have not been decided yet.

The sport, despite its popularity in Asia, has only featured in three of the 19 previous editions of the continental showpiece so far.

Cricket made its debut as a medal event in the Asian Games at Guangzhou 2010 and returned at Incheon 2014, although the matches were not accorded international status.

However, once the sport returned to the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou after being dropped from the programme at Jakarta 2018, all matches were granted international status by the International Cricket Council (ICC) - the global governing body for cricket.

The Asian Games 2026 will be a multi-sport event celebrated around the Aichi Prefecture in Japan from 19 September to 4 October 2026. The prefecture capital, Nagoya, will be the epicenter of the events. Nagoya will be the third Japanese city to host the Asian Games, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994. The event is set to return to its traditional 4-year cycle, after the 2022 edition was postponed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.