The Pingfeng campus of Zhejiang University of Technology, nestled amidst mountainous forests in eastern China, recently hosted a significant event that captured the attention of South Asia.
India’s women’s cricket team clinched their first gold medal in the sport at the Asian Games, defeating Sri Lanka by 19 runs in the final.
The T20 match saw India score 117 runs, with Smriti Mandhana contributing 46 runs and Jemimah Rodrigues scoring 42 runs before 18-year-old bowler Titas Sadhu took three wickets for six runs to secure India’s victory.
Rodrigues expressed her pride in the team’s achievement, stating that winning the gold medal for their nation and adding to its tally of medals was a significant honour.
Cricket only became a part of the Asian Games in 2010, and India did not participate in the sport at the Guangzhou or Incheon editions.
India’s absence was blamed for the sport’s exclusion from the 2018 Games in Jakarta.
However, India sent both a men’s and women’s cricket team to Hangzhou, despite the scheduling overlap with the upcoming 50-over World Cup.
India’s presence at the Asian Games was a significant boost for Hangzhou, as a large number of Indian viewers tuned in to watch the matches.
The Indian media also covered the women’s final extensively, and Indian officials, including government and Olympic executives, were present at the venue during the first innings.
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India has traditionally struggled to make an impact at the Olympics, with their record of seven medals at the recent Tokyo Games being their highest.
However, adding cricket to the Olympic program, as expected for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, could potentially increase India’s medal tally.
Amitabh Sharma, an Indian Olympic Association executive member, expressed his optimism about cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics, stating that it would be good for the sport and the Games.
He also suggested that cricket could help boost interest in the Olympics in South Asia, a region that has traditionally shown a lukewarm response to the event.
Hangzhou’s Asian Games tournament could also help raise cricket’s profile in China, where the sport has not yet gained a foothold.
The cricket ground at Zhejiang University of Technology was introduced to the institution’s curriculum this year, and the organizers spared no expense in hosting the tournament to international standards, with a roofed grandstand and a digital scoreboard.
The tournament attracted a few local sports journalists, some of whom admitted to being unfamiliar with certain aspects of the game.
Chinese fans in the crowd cheered enthusiastically whenever the batters hit the ball to the boundary.
Cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics could increase the sport’s cachet among Games-loving Chinese officials and potentially lead to increased funding.
For India’s women’s cricket team, winning a medal at the Olympics would be the next step, having won silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year.
Mandhana expressed her hope that cricket would be part of the next Olympics, following their success at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
