Indians have played at Lord’s many times, but coming here with a bow instead of a bat made it look different. It made Indians and many other cricket feels something is missing there and all cricket fans around the globe will be hoping for that gap to be fixed – that cricket returns to the Olympics.
THE ILLOGICAL REASON We all know that cricket was part of 1900 games where just 2 teams took part.
Both teams weren’t selected by national boards and French team contained English players. After that cricket was removed from Olympics due to a single game being too long. That notion is however way too outdated and with t20 format, cricket has gone a step ahead. Each match can be completed in around 3 hours time, quite close to other events at Olympics. As seen in events like World T20, 3 matches can held on a single day
THE GLOBALIZATION The sports that are played in today’s OlympicEs are played across several countries. Today cricket has spread globally due to t20 cricket and IPL. Cricket at Olympics will fetch the top teams along with others and will be competitive enough for Olympic sport. It would be interesting to see if England would combine with Ireland and Scotland and West Indies split into respective countries.
THE UPWARD JOURNEY Cricket’s reach will increase if it makes the games. During Olympics, people watch events like rowing, cycling and maybe others like canoeing, sailing, gymnastics or archery because they get to view it only at major events. The same thing could happen with cricket – people from outside the ‘cricket range’ could see the game and maybe later on follow it. Countries would also look at it as a chance and might send in their teams and it will result in cricket’s gain
THE ISSUES Cricket could face some issues if it reaches the big games. First of all ICC will have to dig into schedule
which is already cramped up. It could be solved by removing some series from schedule. Another issue is that it shouldn’t go the soccer-way as countries play in u-23 players with 3 overage players. Other sports also find less following compared to events of athletics, cycling and swimming
THE BOTTOM LINE Cricket should definitely be tried at one edition of Olympics and then the decision should be made. Having cricket at the games will boost cricket’s domain and take the game to new levels.
The Cricket Cauldron 