By AAP
October 19th 2008 @ 6:14am
Super 14 tipping now live for sign-ups. Join now and invite your mates..
---------------
ICC conflicted on Olympic question
International cricket’s custodians are divided about whether the game should push for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics, after IOC supremo Jacques Rogge put the ball firmly in the court of the sport’s governing body.
Speaking in India at the Commonwealth Youth Games, Rogge ruled out cricket as an inclusion at either of the next two games in 2012 and 2016.
He said the committee had yet to be informed of the ICC’s intentions.
“It all depends on the ICC,” he told reporters in Pune.
“If they want to include it in the Commonwealth Games or Olympics they first have to be an IOC member.
“As of now they are not a member… we have received no application from the ICC.”
However the push from several of cricket’s member nations, Australia included, to have a short version of the sport at the Olympics has been based on the marketing friendly ploy of pushing for “Twenty20 in 2020″.
ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, who insisted that the ICC were in fact members of the Olympic governing body, said there was still some thrashing out to be done before a bid for inclusion could be put forward.
“It’s now a question of whether we want to participate in the Olympics, and there are some very strong views for participation, just as there’s some resistance to get involved because it does impact on the calendar,” he said.
“We all know about the challenge of scheduling all our games.
“We are a member of the Olympic committee, but we’re considering whether we need to go on to participate, and there are some moves to try to get it into the 2020 Olympics.”
Super 14 tipping now live for sign-ups. Join now and invite your mates.
Free Email updates:
Our daily emails are only sent if there is content for the sport or that author. You can subscribe to multiple daily emails; or get the daily Roar email with all our content in it. We value privacy. More...
(5)
Loading ...
Greg Russell said | October 20th 2008 @ 2:48pm | Report comment
Cricket is a Commonwealth sport, and when it was tried at the 1998 Commonwealth Games it was a flop. So why even contemplate it at the Olympics? If ever there was a sport that is not suited to the Olympics and has absolutely no need to be at the Olympics, it is cricket. And I write this as someone who adores the game.
That said, the cynical side of me would love to see the ICC under the hammer of the IOC. It has some strict rules - for example, associated with drug testing - and even mighty FIFA has at times been brought to heel by the IOC. For Indian administrators used to throwing their weight around with impunity, it would be quite an experience to find that the IOC has some demands that cannot just be circumvented courtesy of a midnight meeting, retrospective press release and sabre-rattling.
Michael C said | October 20th 2008 @ 3:29pm | Report comment
If China can start getting even 0.01% of their population working on cricket, then by 2020, the inclusion of 20/20 cricket could well work.
Commonwealth historical base or not - - if you have India and China then there’s not much argument.
Heck, if Hockey can be an olympic sport - surely cricket can.
20/20 would offer a far different proposition to ‘neutrals’ than even 50 over ODIs.
Michael DiFabrizio said | October 20th 2008 @ 3:57pm | Report comment
I think the advent of twenty20 cricket has ruled out the ‘98 Commonwealth Games argument. With T20, you can essentially play 3 games on a certain ground in one day. But will there still be enough venues even after that?
Ovals are very land-consuming and you will need more than one to cater for an Olympics. To make matters worse, of the serious candidates for the 2020 games, none are in cricket-playing nations.
At the end of the day, an Olympics with cricket would instantly compound the event’s importance in India and their 1billion+ population. That (and the small niche being carved out in China) might be enough to win over the IOC.
Dave said | October 20th 2008 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
So a sport that is wanted in by a couple of countries and played seriously by a few more to be included? Baseball is played by more countries around the world and China might find an interest in that game.
Millster said | October 20th 2008 @ 4:31pm | Report comment
For mine the game 20/20 is ideally suited to the Commonwealth games as cricket is first and foremost a British Empire / Commonwealth / Colonies passtime. The fit could not be better. See how it goes in that environment for 12-16 years (during which we can also see how the game goes in general) and then re-hash this conversation.
More broadly I think the olympics needs a harsh and drastic rethink of which sports should be in and which should be out. That’s not a comment against cricket’s inclusion per se, and in fact while I’m no great fan of the game I think it has far greater merits for inclusion than about 60% of the sports already in there.