So far, international cricket has been more or less confined to 10 Test playing nations and a handful few. But thanks to an effort by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the game of glorious uncertainty is likely to stage a comeback to world’s greatest sporting extravaganza, the Olympics.
It will be a comeback for cricket because the game did feature in a previous Olympics, way back in 1900 in Paris where Britain beat France to win the gold medal.
Cricket’s duration made it difficult to qualify as an Olympic event but ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said Twenty20, the slam-bang version of the game, is tailor-made to be an Olympic sport because of its short, sharp quickfire mix of entertainment.
Speed said
For cricket to be in the Olympics, Twenty20 will be the ideal format because we can play the tournament in two weeks which is also the duration of the Olympics.
He informed ICC would soon apply for membership of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to fulfill its long-term plan of having Twenty20 cricket in the Olympics.
Cricket has also been played in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and would be part of disciplines at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
