NEW DELHI, Jan 23: New Delhi’s hopes of including cricket in the 2010 Commonwealth Games hit a big hurdle Monday as the Indian cricket board refused to play in the 20-20 format proposed by the International Cricket Council.

“We don’t want to play the 20-20 version of the game for purely cricket reasons,” said N. Srinivasan, treasurer of the Indian board, which Monday discussed the ICC’s circular on the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) proposal to include cricket in the 2010 games.

India has proposed to include archery, billiards and snooker, cricket, tennis and judo in addition to the 15 sports already approved.

Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee, slammed BCCI for dragging its feet on the issue of cricket’s inclusion in the biggest sporting event to be staged in the country since the 1982 Asian Games.

“Time is running out ... BCCI needs to quickly decide whether or not it wants to be part of the Games,” Kalmadi said.

He said cricket may not figure among the sports for the 2010 games with just six weeks left for CGF’s final decision.

Cricket featured in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, where the 50-overs competition was played.—Agencies