- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The ICC have announced that the Olympics is back on the agenda. Somewhere in the ivory towers in the deserts of Dubai, our lords and masters are going to debate cricket’s inclusion, which is a welcome step forward from a body that has ignored the Olympics in the past.
Cricket has appeared at the Olympics before. In 1900 in Paris, a ‘tournament’ took place, although after Belgium and the Netherlands dropped out, only Britain and France took part in one single match.
The French won, made up of a team of British expats.
Ninety-eight years later, cricket made an appearance at the Commonwealth Games, but this also had issues, especially as nations such as England decided not to send full strength teams due to scheduling conflicts.
The winners were South Africa, who defeated Australia in the final, both of whom sent full strength teams. Despite these past failures, cricket can still work at the Olympics.
One thing cricket has in its favour is pedigree. There are more than 100 nations who are registered with the ICC, and over two billion fans worldwide, making cricket arguably the second most popular team sport in the world.
Compare cricket to some of the other sports that will be included in the Olympics in coming years. To be played in Japan in 2020 are golf, rugby sevens and kite-surfing, all of which don’t come close to having the same popularity as cricket worldwide.
Another reason why cricket would now work is the change in format. In 1900, Britain and France faced off in a five-day Test and in 1998, Australia and South Africa faced off in a ODI match during the day.
If cricket is to be included in the Olympics, the obvious option is Twenty20. As the shortest form of the game, it is the most unpredictable, meaning that the gap in skill between the top teams and the bottom ones is less, making matches more exciting and meaning that teams like Afghanistan still have a chance against Australia.
Top countries don’t have to worry about schedule conflicts, as the squads used for T20s are often vastly different to those used for ODIs and Test matches.
With T20 several matches can be played in a day as well. Say a tournament featured 16 teams in four groups and needed to be finished in 14 days. Impossible? No.
Let’s say we have one cricket ground. For each day, three matches are played on that ground; one in the morning from 10:30am to 12:30pm, one in the afternoon from 2pm to 5pm and one in the evening from 6:30pm until 9:30pm. There would need to be 24 matches in the group stage, and at around three a day this would mean the group stage takes only 8-10 days.
After a one-day break, the semi-finals with the top team from each group would take place on the same day, one after the other. Then, after another one-day break, the bronze and gold medal matches could take place consecutively.
Playing three matches a day would also give the TV companies plenty of cricket. Although this broadcast deal would have to be tied up separately to the main broadcast deal in order for a decent amount of cricket to be televised, which could make things more difficult for cricket to be included in the Olympics.
There are of course many issues with cricket at the Olympics. For example, the broadcast deal, as not every match could be televised. Teams would also face an intense schedule, and facilities may not be up to scratch in some countries.
However, there are many benefits to cricket at the Olympics. Despite the ICC trying to make cricket the top sport in the world, they refuse to increase the amount of teams at the World Cup and limit the amount of teams who have the chance to compete in Test cricket. Having cricket at the Olympics would give the sport a massive boost worldwide, without compromising the ICC’s principles.
If we dropped the ICC T20 (do we really need a tournament every two years?) and replaced it with an Olympic tournament which allows our best cricketers to compete for the ultimate prize on the world stage, the benefits would be endless.
Who knows, one day Glenn Maxwell might be the owner of a Olympic gold medal, having won it in a thrilling match against Ireland at the 2032 Olympics in Rome.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.