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New Delhi - Cricket will make its debut at the 2010 Asian Games in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, organisers announced on Tuesday.
"The game has a huge mass base in your country and we are happy to have accommodated Twenty20 cricket in our list of disciplines," Fang Daer, marketing director of the Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee, told reporters.
Also appearing for the first time at the Asiad are dance sport, dragon boat racing, roller sport and the ancient Chinese board game of weiqi, taking the total number of disciplines to a staggering 42, three more than at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
Daer expressed the hope that India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh - the Test-playing nations of the continent - would send their top teams for the event.
He admitted cricket was yet to catch the imagination of the host country but hoped China would take part in the Twenty20 competition, which has been steadily gaining in popularity.
"It's not that popular a game in China but things are changing and more and more people are being drawn to the game. Twenty20 is a new format and we are hopeful of China's participation in the game," he said.
Cricket was last seen at a major multi-sport event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, but was dropped for the next two editions in England and Australia.
The sport made its one and only appearance at the Olympics in Paris in 1900, where in a two-day match Great Britain - represented by touring team Devon and Somerset Wanderers - beat France, whose team mainly consisted of members of the British Embassy.
