The Southeast Asian Games are a multination biannually sporting event that is contested between eleven countries of Southeast Asia. These countries are Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and East Timor.
Cricket was introduced as a demonstration sport at the Southeast Asian Games in 2011. It was first included in the Southeast Asian Games in 2017 that was held in Malaysia. The competition featured three events: a men’s 50-over competition, and a men’s and a women’s T20 competition. The 50-over event was won by Malaysia, whereas the men’s and women’s T20 event was won by Singapore and Thailand respectively.
After a hiatus of six years, cricket returned to the Southeast Asian Games in its latest edition held in 2023 in Cambodia. This time around, there were eight cricket competitions that were played in 50-overs, T20, T10, and six-a-side format for both the men and women. The T20 tournaments were recognised by the International Cricket Council and thus carried ranking points. National sides could take part in three of the four formats. Cambodia has the privilege of entering all four events as they were the hosts.
Based on the number of entrants, in every format, teams were divided into two groups. In each group, teams would play each other in a single round-robin format. The toppers of both groups would contest the final. The bronze medal match is held between the next two best teams across both groups. In the league stage, teams are awarded two points for a win, zero for a loss, and one for a draw, tie or no result. If two teams are tied at the same points, the net run-rate decides the better team.
The result of the eight cricket events held at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games saw Cambodia and Thailand securing the gold medal position thrice each, followed by Indonesia and Malaysia with one gold medal each.
