Cricket will make its debut at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China in November next year, and the eligibility rules for the games leave some of the regions cricket teams in somewhat of a selection quandary.

The same rules will be in place for the Asian Games as are in place for the Olympics, and this means that national passport holders only will be allowed on the teams. Whilst this obviously isn't a problem for the four Test playing nations or hosts China, many teams in the region are heavily reliant on expatriate players.

Oman have already stated their intention to field a team made up of locals, and the Emirates Cricket Board intends to do the same.

To indicate how much trouble this could be, their 24 man squad for next month's ACC Twenty20 includes just four locally born players. That is actually down on the World Cup Qualifier, where out of the 14 players used in the tournament, five were born in the UAE.

With nationality law in the Gulf countries usually ruling out citizenship for anyone not born there, it suggests that a development programme for Emirati cricketers needs to be rolled out pretty quickly. Of course the cynics, and I count myself amongst them in this case, will point out that Gulf countries have seen no problem waiving the usual rules to allow Kenyan long-distance runners to gain nationality, and it has to be hoped that this doesn't happen for cricket, and that the Emirates Cricket Board will see this as the opportunity it clearly is.

One thing we don't know about the tournament next year is which teams will be taking part. It was originally planned that next month's ACC Twenty20 Cup would serve as a qualifier, with teams from the EAP region that compete in the Asian Games, such as Japan, taking part.

However all mention of this has been removed from the Asian Cricket Council website. It was planned that three teams would qualify to join the four Test playing nations plus hosts China. With Oman and the UAE planning teams, it suggest that the top three non-test teams in the world rankings are being invited, with Afghanistan probably the eighth team.