Why the BCCI Must Send Its Best Team to the Asian Games

Image: Tilak Varma

A question is doing the rounds as to why the BCCI should send its best team to the Asian Games when the logistics aren’t the best at the moment. Players don’t have the kind of rooms they are used to and might even have to share if things aren’t sorted in the next few days. The question is pertinent because cricket is used to a certain degree of leverage in India.

Having said that, the BCCI should, and will, send its best team to Nagoya. India is on the path to using sport as soft power and is a host for the 2030 Commonwealth Games while mounting a bid for the 2036 Olympic Games. If you don’t send your best team to the Asian Games, your bid falls flat because the signal it sends is that you aren’t serious about multi-sport events.

The argument over rooms and logistics is a non-starter in front of the world. Traditionally, athletes have always celebrated living in the Olympic or Asian Games village, where the standard of accommodation is, at best, that of a three-star hotel. The experience is what matters, and no athlete can expect five-star accommodation in a Games village. And yet everyone wants that experience. 

Imagine a Vaibhav Sooryavanshi meeting Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz at the LA28 Olympic Village and having a chat about handling pressure. That experience outweighs any logistical hurdles, and such experiences are only possible at multi-sport events. It is precisely for this reason that logistics will never take precedence when it comes to events like these.

For Indian players, it is not the best situation to be in. They could and should have had it better had the ACC, under Mohsin Naqvi, moved early and booked hotels. There were hotels available a year ago, yet nothing was done. But now there isn’t much that can be salvaged. Nagoya doesn’t have more hotels to offer, and it is a take-it-or-leave-it option. Indians will have to make do with what’s there, and the BCCI will know that, for the sake of India’s pitch to use sport as soft power, sending the best team to the Asian Games is a necessity.

Finally, if you ask Roger Federer, perhaps the greatest tennis player ever, he will tell you that one of the highest points of his career was the 2008 Olympic doubles gold medal he won with Stan Wawrinka. He ranks it higher than many of his Grand Slam wins. To win a multi-sport event for your country and see the national flag go up when you are presented with the gold medal is a very different experience for any sportsperson. The players will want it much more than the comforts of a hotel room if it comes to a trade-off.

The situation, to be clear, is far from ideal because of the mess-up by the ACC. At the same time, when has life ever been ideal? In a world that is not ideal, it is a small price to pay when a gold medal is at stake.

For more information on Asian Games 2026, follow RevSportz 

The post Why the BCCI Must Send Its Best Team to the Asian Games appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



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