In another positive development for the sport in the Sub-Continent – and yes, I mean the whole of the Sub-Continent, cricket was recently announced as one of many new sports at the 11th South Asian Games (SAG), to be held in Bangladesh in late January.

An ACC report has now confirmed that seven (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan, and Nepal) of the eight countries in the region will be fielding U-21 teams in a 20/20 competition.

While Afghanistan are already strutting their stuff, so to speak, quite impressively on the world stage, there is no denying that the opportunity to face the region’s four Test playing nations, will expose Nepal’s and Maldives’ youngsters to a higher level of competition, whilst providing them with the opportunity to play at international level grounds, in front of thousands of fans, away from home. Both countries, like many others in the region, seem to have reached a glass ceiling in terms of lack of quality domestic cricket, and regular international competition. Not only has this has caused players to leave the game, but has stagnated interest from sponsors, the media, and government in these countries.

The SAG and the Asian Games later in the year give their dreams of playing as professionals another glimmer of hope, and put cricket back on these countries’ national sporting pedestal, at least in the short run. The tournament will also give the sides valuable match practice to the Nepalese ahead of their WCL Division 5 sojourn in February, and many of the players on the fringes of the Afghan side in light of the busy year they have ahead.

However, as with most new developments in the sporting world, there are always doubts and concerns. This initiative is no different.

One only needs to look back at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, the last time cricket was included into an international sporting competition which ignored the separation between the different playing leagues of ICC member nations, to be reminded of the terrible failures of the concept. The tournament was fraught with grossly one-sided matches, full member teams fielding second string teams, and a relative lack of corporate support and media attention. Cricket was scrapped in the next edition of the games.

What is to stop the Big Four from fielding third, fourth of fifth string sides consisting of club cricketers and fringe state players? The busy world of the Future Tours Program has no time for inconsequential tournaments against teams from the Maldives and Nepal.

This quality of the tournament is even more likely to be diminished given that domestic competitions in the Test playing countries are in full swing and many top state players could be declared unavailable by their associations if allowed. Compounding this is the fact that five of the seven participants will have their best juniors playing in a much more important tournament thousands of miles away. The ICC U-19 World Cup will still be in its closing stages.

And what of Bhutan? They are Asia’s newest entrants in the WCL and a team whose U-21s form the core of the national setup. For a government and a people who are becoming increasingly supportive of the sport domestically, it remains a mystery as to why they’ve chosen not to field a team. Whatever the reason/reasons, they will be wasting a golden opportunity to play against top quality opposition and prepare for their WCL journey which starts later in the year in Kuwait.

All in all, however, the initiative in its purest sense is a step in the right direction. It’s a definite positive for the countries participating, and step towards the recognition of the sport on a wider scale in the Sub-Continent.

Let us hope cricket in the South Asian Games is here to stay.