Why India's Cricket Team Skipped The 2014 Asian Games

Why did the Indian cricket team not participate in the on-going Asian Games at Incheon, South Korea?

"While Pakistan and India pushed for the inclusion of cricket in Asian Games, they backed off later," cricket expert Ayaz Memon said on Boom News's show #Cricket-O-Mania.

"They should have gone for two reasons: one, there was a good chance of winning a gold medal; second, the idea of ICC/BCCI is to promote the game," Memon said, and added: "India has enough bench strength to have sent a team."

Sports journalist Abhishek Dubey felt it was an amazing opportunity to globalise the game but unfortunately it has not happened.

Memon was of the opinion that BCCI has been back-pedalling on the idea of including cricket in Olympics. Dubey added: "The entire onus of promoting cricket lies on BCCI."

Memon further said that while BCCI and Indian Olympics Association (IOA) do not see eye-to-eye on various issues, star players also don't seem too enthused by the idea.

"We have to win more gold medals; our cricket team should have been there for that," Dubey said.

(Image courtesy: BCCI)