Prior commitments was cited as the reason by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for not registering the men's and women's teams for the continental event.

"We have entries in all sports except one - cricket (team) isn’t going," India's Chef de Mission Bhupender Bajwa was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

"They said they are preoccupied.

"We sent 3-4 emails to them but when we had to send entries to the organisers, they said they won’t go."

According to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Future Tours Program (FTP), the Indian women are set to play South Africa and New Zealand at home from September to October.

The men will have the ODI World Cup to look forward to during October and November.

"We had received the mail from IOA [Indian Olympic Association] just one day before the deadline," a BCCI official was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.  

"At the same time, the BCCI already has finalised the FTP for women’s cricket.

"During the Asian Games, our team won’t be available as they will be playing in a tournament."

Cricket has featured at the 2010 and 2014 editions of the Asian Games, where India did not field teams and the sport did not make the cut at the Jakarta-Palembang 2018 Games.  

Indian women won silver at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

India's - a popular and strong cricketing nation - withdrawal from the continental event comes at a time when cricket is trying to find a place on the Olympic programme.

The 2022 Asian Games is scheduled to be held from September 23 to October 8 this year after it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.