Japan offers Associates a lesson in making opportunities count: ICC member

Japan may have finished the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games without a cricket medal, but Abhiram S. Yadav, Associate Member representative on the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee, believes the hosts could still emerge from the Games with something equally significant — a blueprint for how emerging cricket nations can use major sporting events to accelerate their development.

“Japan understood that the Asian Games were not only a competition to participate in,” Abhiram said. “They looked at the opportunity around the Games and asked how it could help cricket grow beyond those few days. That is something other Associate Members can learn from.”

According to Abhiram, it was about how the Japan Cricket Association (JCA) used the wider Asian Games opportunity to bring international attention to cricket, strengthen infrastructure, attract commercial and government support, and create a historic fixture against India.

ICC Chairman Jay Shah, who presented the medals to the Indian team, described Nagoya and Japan as having written a “proud new chapter in cricket’s history”. Abhiram believes that assessment extends beyond the tournament itself.

A key part of that strategy came before Japan’s men began their Asian Games campaign. On September 22, Japan hosted reigning T20 world champions India at the Sano International Cricket Ground in the first men’s T20I between the two countries. The rain-shortened five-over contest almost produced a major upset, with Japan falling just two runs short.

Beyond the result, however, the match gave Japanese cricket a rare global spotlight. “The ICC has spoken consistently about making cricket more inclusive and taking the game to more countries,” he said. “What is encouraging is when those words are followed by practical examples. Helping bring India and Japan together was one such example. But once that door was opened, Japan made the opportunity count. That second part is equally important.”

Japan had already developed the cricket venue at Kōrogi Sports Park in Nisshin, which hosted ICC East Asia-Pacific qualifying cricket earlier in 2026 before staging the Asian Games competition.