2024 proposed for cricket to become an Olympic sport
On Thursday, International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO, Dave Richardson, declared that the time is right to apply for the sport’s inclusion at the Olympic Games.
On Thursday, International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Officer Dave Richardson declared that the time is right to apply for the sport’s inclusion at the Olympic Games.
Decision on cricket's inclusion at the Olympics to be taken
Cricket’s governing body will decide this summer whether to bid for the sport to be incorporated in the 2024 Olympics. “We need to make a decision by July so we can make an application in time for September, when, as I understand it, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will consider new sports for 2024”, said Richardson.
Any approach to the Committee would be for cricket’s shortest Twenty20 format. According to Richardson, “Twenty20 is the ideal format as it is one of the mainstream formats of cricket”.
The ICC feel that an Olympic Twenty20 tournament would be crucial for the game's growth globally.
Olympic Cricket could return to Paris for the first time in over a century
The 2024 Summer Olympics will be hosted by eitherof the two remaining candidates: Paris or Los Angeles. The IOC will choose the host city at a meeting in Lima, Peru in September 2017.
Cricket has only been featured once in the Olympics, at Paris 1900. Great Britain beat the only other entrant, France, by 158 runs to collect the gold medal. And bizarrely, more than 120 years later, Olympic cricket could return to the last city that witnessed it.
Top-name players would need to turn up
In the participation agreements established by the IOC, there is a clause that demands for the best players to turn up. Last year, golf returned to the Olympics for the first time since 1904. However, this was marred with most of the top stars not attending.
If cricket becomes an Olympic sport, England and West Indies won’t be able to compete as such: a Great Britain team would represents England while Caribbean nations would compete individually.
The IOC stated that there are going to be limitations on athlete numbers for future Summer Olympics. This means that, in case cricket is included, the competition could not cater for more than six to eight teams.