BCCI make five key announcements following their 19th Apex Council meeting

BCCI made a historic announcement of clearing India’s men and women cricket teams’ participation for the Asian Games 2023 that is slated to be played later in the year in Hangzhou, China. BCCI also confirmed that no World Cup bound players would be a part of the squad for the upcoming Asian Games.

The announcement is a hint at the regular players being dropped out of the side while a lot of young and domestic players would finally be earning their international caps that would allow the Men in Blue to start scouting for the upcoming days.

After the 19th Apex Council meeting that took place in Mumbai on Friday, BCCI secretary, Jay Shah announced, “BCCI will send both men’s and women’s teams to the Asian Games scheduled to be held in September 2023 at Hangzhou, China. However, considering the overlap of schedule of the Asian Games with ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, BCCI will select from the players not participating in the World Cup to play in the Asian Games.”

The Asian Games will be kick-starting on September 23rd and will conclude on October 8th. Despite the dates being announced, the length of the cricket in the Games is still to be decided. Like all other teams, BCCI would be announcing an 18-member squad which will not feature any cricketer who is a part of the World Cup team given their ongoing preparations for the quadrennial extravaganza.

However, for the women’s cricket competition, a full-strength squad will be sent out as they do not have any major tournaments on the horizon which will allow them to be a part of the Games in full bloom.

At the end of the Apex Council meet, BCCI made five key announcements. Alongside the announce for the Asian Games, the other four were:

- BCCI will formulate a policy for its players (including retired players) with respect to their participation in overseas T20 leagues.

- BCCI shall continue with the concept of Impact Player in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the next season with two variations from previous season and the Indian Premier League – a) The teams will have to select their playing XI along with 4 substitute players before the toss; and (b) The teams can use the Impact Player at any time during the match. In the previous season of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a team could only use the Impact Player before the 14th over of an innings.

- The BCCI has decided to introduce two bouncers per over in the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy to balance the contest between bat and ball.

- BCCI shall work towards the upgradation of stadiums in the country in two phases: (a) The first phase will deal with the upgradation of the venues of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, work for which shall be completed before the commencement of the World Cup; and (b) The second phase will involve upgradation of rest of the venues.