Persistent rain continued to disrupt the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Tuesday, resulting in the abandonment of the men’s cricket quarter-final matches without a single ball being bowled. Due to the second consecutive day of washed-out play at the Korogi Sports Park on the southern outskirts of Nagoya, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh progressed automatically to the last four as the higher-ranked teams. Sri Lanka was scheduled to play Nepal, while Bangladesh had been set to face Malaysia.
Semi-Final Matchups and Team News
Following their automated progression, Sri Lanka will face defending champions India, while Bangladesh will take on Pakistan in the semi-finals on Thursday. However, Bangladesh will be forced to compete without batter Najmul Hossain Shanto, who was ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to a fever and an infection.
Organisers Devastated by Weather
Games sports director Jarrad Shearer expressed heavy disappointment after spending a full year converting a baseball diamond into a cricket venue, only for weather to halt play. “Cricket, like baseball, you can’t play it in the rain. A year of my life on this, and it rains,” Shearer said.
Efforts to Dry the Field
Despite consecutive disruptions, Shearer remained hopeful that conditions would improve for the upcoming high-profile matches. “Come tomorrow morning it will be all hands on deck to dry up the areas that aren’t under the covers. We’ve got some soppers, we’ve got some squeegees, some big old brooms, we’ve got sponges,” Shearer explained. “Plus, it’s supposed to be sunny and 32 C (89.6 Fahrenheit), so with any luck we’ll soak up as much water as we can in the morning and the sun will do its work in the afternoon.”
