Asian Games 2026: Shukla clarifies as questions arise over hotels in Nagoya

The Asian Games 2026 begin on September 19 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, and will include cricket. Both the Indian men's and women's cricket teams, already announced by the BCCI, will take part. Ahead of the competition, questions had been raised about arrangements for the players' stay.

A shortage of large hotels in Nagoya had led to questions over where the Indian cricketers would stay. BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla addressed the issue at a send-off ceremony for the Indian team. Speaking to a news agency, Shukla said the Indian cricketers would stay only in hotels fixed by the organisers. He said the BCCI and the players were satisfied with the existing arrangements, so no separate hotel would be arranged.

Shukla said the players would stay wherever the organisers had arranged accommodation for them. "We are keeping a constant watch on which hotel the players are staying in. These are not five-star hotels, but they are good hotels. We have seen photos and videos of the hotels, so I am confident they will be comfortable. The players will stay in this hotel because they also had the option of staying in Osaka or Tokyo, but those places are quite far," he said. The BCCI vice-president also made clear that the Indian cricketers would not share rooms, but would be given separate rooms each.

The Indian men's cricket team will leave for Tokyo on September 20, where India and Japan will play their first-ever T20 International match on September 22. The Indian team, captained by Shreyas Iyer, will then play its first match at the Asian Games on September 28, a quarter-final.

The Indian men's cricket team for the Asian Games 2026 includes Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh.