Bangladesh wants cricket on SA Games roster

DHAKA, Dec 13 (Reuters) Bangladesh plans to include cricket as a new event when it hosts the 11th South Asian Games in 2008, a senior sports official said today.

Eight nations -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- are expected to participate in the biennial meet.

''We have four test playing nations among us. So we could easily include the cricket in the SA Games,'' said Ishtiaq Ahmed, a senior official of Bangladesh Olympic Association.

Cricket, a non-Olympic event, was last played in a major international meet at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

''We understand it will be difficult for the test playing nations to send a full-strength side in the SA Games. In that case we would happily accept age-level teams,'' he said.

The disciplines for the Games will be finalised at a meeting of representatives from participating nations in Dhaka next February.

''As the host, we primarily underlined 15 disciplines including cricket for the meet,'' Ishtiaq added.

REUTERS SAM SSC1313