For women’s cricket, Asiad a ‘teaser’ before 2028 LA Olympics opportunity

Harmanpreet Kaur

Nagoya: India start favourites to win the women’s cricket gold here, but Harmanpreet Kaur and her team have a bigger prize on their mind — the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where cricket will return to the Games after 128 years.

Cricket made its only previous Olympic appearance at Paris in 1900, when Great Britain and France were the only teams competing. As the defending champions begin their campaign against hosts Japan in the quarterfinals at Korogi Athletic Park in Nisshin City on Friday, head coach Amol Muzumdar said he saw the Asian Games as a teaser for the Olympic assignment.“This is a great teaser towards the Olympic quest for the Indian women’s team.

We are getting used to certain things at the Asian Games. Touring to a different part of the world for this — we’ll do the same in LA — will be a different experience for most of us,” Muzumdar said on Thursday.Harmanpreet echoed the thoughts of her coach, saying the team would approach the tournament with the same mindset that helped them win gold on their Asian Games debut in Hangzhou in 2022. “As a team we are really looking forward to the Olympics and (here) we will go with the same mindset and approach like the last time,” she said.

For now, though, the immediate target is to retain the Asian Games crown. “We respect every opponent, we start from zero and whenever India plays the aim is to always compete for the gold,” Muzumdar said.

China out without playing

It was heartbreak for the Chinese women’s cricket team as their quarterfinal against Bangladesh was abandoned without a ball being bowled.The match, which was initially delayed, was eventually called off, sending Bangladesh into the semifinals on basis of being the higher-ranked team. They will next face the winner of Friday’s India-Japan quarterfinal.Pakistan also made the last four after surviving a scare before beating Thailand by three wickets in a low-scoring contest.