India set to bid for Asian Beach Games and Asian Games

India set to bid for Asian Beach Games and Asian Games

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India will bid for the hosting rights for two major continental sporting extravaganza in the form of the 2020 Asian Beach Games and the 2030 Asian Games. Kazakhstan, Cambodia and Turkmenistan are some of the other countries that have also expressed interest in hosting the 2020 Beach Games.

India previously hosted the Asian Games in 1982 but never the Asian Beach Games for which Mumbai's long coastline could offer ample seafront. A source revealed that the plan was agreed upon in a recent meeting between the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president N Ramachandran and Sports Minister Vijay Goel.

"We have pretty much everything in place for the Beach Games," a source told ESPN. "Also it can act as a possible pitch for us for the Asian Games." 

The last multi-discipline international sporting event that India hosted was the 2010 CommonWealth Games in New Delhi. and the latest plan is to promote more such global sports events. 

"Only by staging large-scale events can we manage to generate interest around sports, which will also go towards helping set up more infrastructure and also develop a sporting culture, which we currently lack," the source added.

The next edition of the Asian Games will be held in 2018 in Jakarta followed by Hangzhou in 2022 and Japan in 2026.

Another key point discussed at the meeting was the possible bidding for the 2028 or 2032 Olympics.

"If it does eventually go through, we will have a lot of time to work on the necessary arrangements. While it may seem like a long shot now, it is achievable if we set out to work early. It will be the biggest fillip Indian sport can have," the source said.

The 2020 Olympics will take place in Tokyo and Los Angeles and Paris are the only two cities in the race to host the 2024 Olympics after three out of five countries opted out of bidding to due to cost concerns.

The meeting also focused on the irregular hosting of the National Games. The last edition of the Games was held in Kerala in 2015 after a four-year gap from the Jharkhand edition which was preceded by Assam in 2007.

The next edition is scheduled to take place later this year in Goa.

Did you know, Georgia and Israel which completely lie inside Asia as per Geographic boundaries, participate in European games instead of Asian games!

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