Having won 70 medals at the 18th Asian Games held in Jakarta in 2018, which was India’s best ever to date yet finishing eighth in the medals tally, the country aims to cross 100 in the upcoming 19th Asian Games at Hangzhou.
With a contingent of over 700, the slogan for it is “hum hai , zidd pe sawaar, ise baar, sau paar, phirse, hum honge kamyaab.”
This grand fortnight long sporting event from September 23 to October 8 featuring 40 sports and 61 disciplines will be a showcase of athletic prowess and cultural exchange, as representatives from Asian countries compete in the spirit of sportsmanship and camaraderie.
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has been responsible for organizing the Asian Games since 1982 and this sporting extravaganza which takes place every four years was delayed by a year having been scheduled for 2023 due to the pandemic.
It is to India’s credit that it has participated in all the editions of this quadiennial showpiece having played an important role in the establishment of the Games and hosting the first one in Delhi in 1951.
It is to India’s credit that it has returned with a gold medal in the 18 editions of the Games held so far and was fortunate to have bagged a gold at the 1990 games in Beijing to maintain that record.
For India, track and field has been its forte at the Games having bagged 254 medals with the most successful athlete being P.T. Usha “Payyoli Express” who won 11 medals at the Asian Games – four gold and seven silver. Currently she is Member of Parliament and became the 16th President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on December 10, 2022.
Usha who is a three time Olympian broke the Asian Games record in four events – 200M,400M, 400M hurdles and 4X400M relay- at the Seoul Asian Games in 1986.
Another Indian athlete was the unforgettable “Flying Sikh” Milkha Singh who ironically was given the moniker by Pakistan leader Field Marshal late Ayub Khan. He won gold medals at the Tokyo Asiad in 1958 in 200M and 400M and four years later in 1962 Jakarta he bagged two more gold in 400M and 4x400M relay taking his gold tally in Asian Games to four.
It is interesting to recall that at the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games, India won the football gold and that was the first and the last time that Indian footballers stood on the victory podium for a football medal.
The 1962 football team was the finest that ever left the shores of this country to participate in an international event and came to be known as the “Brazil of Asia.” The team which lost the opening fixture 0-2 to South Korea on August 26 went on to beat the team 2-1 in the final on September 4 before a hostile Jakarta crowd.
Ironically, 56 years in 2018, it was at Jakarta that India bagged a record 70 medals with Gold (16), Silver (23) and Bronze (31).
The Games features an exciting lineup of sports, including hockey, boxing, golf, softball, e-sports, badminton, archery, exercise, swimming and more. India has a special historical connection to the games, having hosted the inaugural event in 1951 and 31 years later for a second time in 1982 in Delhi.
This will be the third time China will be hosting the event. Earlier events were in Beijing and Guangzhou, in 1990 and 2010 respectively.
India was one of the first five founding members of the Asian Games Federation on February 13, 1949, in New Delhi which was disbanded on November 26, 1981 and replaced by the Olympic Council of Asia.
India is also a member of the South Asian Zone of the Olympic Council of Asia, the governing body of all the sports in Asia, recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the continental association of Asia. Being a member of South Asian Zone, India also participates in the South Asian Games, sub-regional Games for South Asia.
The OCA organises five major continental-level multi-sport events: the Asian Games, Asian Winter Games, Asian Indoor-Martial Arts Games, Asian Beach Games and Asian Youth Games. Prior to 2009, Indoor and Martial Arts were two separate events for indoor and martial arts sports respectively. However, the OCA has since amalgamated them into a single event, the Asian Indoor-Martial Arts Games, which was debuted in 2013 in Incheon, South Korea. As a member of OCA, India is privileged to participate in all these multi-sport events.
The 2018 Games saw India’s Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra bagging a gold with Neeraj going on to make history when he became the first Indian athlete to bag a gold in the Olympics in Tokyo 2022 and is a strong favourite at the Asian Games.
Indian men’s hockey got a massive shot in the arm when it won the Asian Hockey Champions Trophy beating Malaysia 4-3 after trailing 1-3 in Chennai.
In the six team event, India was the only unbeaten team winning five and drawing one in the round robin stage and going on to win the final against Malaysia.
Having won the bronze at the Tokyo Olympics beating Germany, India begin their Asian Games hockey campaign as strong contenders for the gold on September 24 against Uzbekistan followed by matches against Singapore (September 26), Japan (September 28), Pakistan (September 30) and Bangladesh (October 2).
Currently Indian men are ranked third in the world behind Netherlands and Belgium.
The women who had bagged the silver losing to Japan in the 2018 final in Jakarta 1-2 are ranked eighth in the world. They won gold once in 1982, won silver twice in 1998 and 2018 and the bronze thrice in 1986, 2006, 2014 and took fourth place four times in 1990, 1994, 2002 and 2010.
The women begin their campaign on September 27 against Singapore (34), September 29 against Malaysia, October one against South Korea (12) and October three against Hong Kong.
The games will see as many as 18 men’s cricket teams and 14 women’s cricket teams competing for the medals.
In the men’s cricket event at Asian Games 2023, these 18 teams will play a total of 18 matches to battle for the top prize from September 28 to October 7.
Hosts China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Nepal, Hong Kong, Oman, Malaysia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Indonesia and Bhutan are the 18 participating nations in the men's cricket event.
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have secured direct entry into the quarter-finals courtesy their ICC T20I men’s rankings. The other 14 teams will compete for the remaining four quarter-final spots.
On the other hand, 14 women’s cricket teams will play 14 matches in the 19th edition of the Asian Games from September 19 to September 28.
China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Nepal, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bhutan, Oman and Singapore are the 14 women’s teams that will compete for the gold.
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have directly qualified for the quarter-finals as the four top teams in ICC women’s T20I rankings. The remaining 10 teams will fight for the other four quarter-final berths.
All Asian Games 2023 cricket teams have been seeded on the basis of their ICC T20I rankings as of June 1, 2023. All matches in the men’s and women’s cricket event will be in the T20 format.
Cricket at Asian Games 2023 will be played at Zhejiang University of Technology Cricket Field in Hangzhou.
Cricket made its Asian Games debut at Guangzhou 2010, before it featured for the second time at Incheon 2014.
Bangladesh cricket team won the men’s event in 2010 while Sri Lanka bagged the gold medal in 2014. Pakistan won both the women’s events in 2010 and 2014.
By Sri Krishna
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