Are you want to know Why is Cricket not in the Olympics?
If yes, then you are at the right place.
Recently, there is a lot of buzz going around about the Olympics in India after India’s Neeraj Chopra won the first athletics medal for the country.
The Olympics is a very competitive tournament and almost every country on the planet represents some of the other sporting event.
We all know that Hockey is part of the Olympics but what about Cricket. Why is the Cricket game not part of Olympics?
Cricket in the Olympics in the past
100 years ago, Cricket was actually a part of the Olympics but was later removed.
The International Olympic Committee in 1894 decided to make cricket a part of the 1896 Athens. Olympics but that was not possible because of the shortage of teams to participate.
Cricket made its first appearance in the Olympics in 1900 which was held in Paris. A couple of teams like the Netherlands and Belgium pulled out from the games and only a single game was held which was played between Great Britain and France and was won by Great Britain by 158 runs.
Reasons Why is Cricket not in the Olympics?
Despite being so popular in India and Asia and some parts of the UK it is not a well-known sport outside the Asian continent and has still not reached many parts of the World and is one of the major reasons for the exclusion of cricket from the Olympics.
Government
Currently, the respective Cricket boards have control over the teams and there is no involvement of the government in any of the major test playing nations and if the sport has to be part of the Olympic games the government needs to take control over the selection of teams which might more or less harm the quality of players.
Formats of the game
The format of the sport is also one of the major reasons as there was no T20 before and an ODI game would take around 8 hours to finish the game which would not be suitable for the duration of the Olympics.
Cricket Grounds
Arrangements of Cricket grounds are again another concern as the sport needs a very big enough ground and no other Olympic event would be possible on the ground. This makes the orangeness work difficult.
Hosting of the Olympics
If the countries where cricket is immensely popular host the Olympics, then there is a chance that the sport might come into play as the sport is not much popular in Europe where most of the time the Olympic games are held.
Schedule
The Schedules of the major international teams are also very tight as they play throughout the entire year and hence it is very difficult to fit in the sport.
Cricket Boards
There has been very minimal effort from the boards like BCCI, ECB, and Cricket Australia to take the sport to the World Stage. The boards still have some issues over this and we hope that the sport gets to the World Stage soon.
Possibility of the Sport getting into the Olympics in the future
ICC (International Cricket Council) on 10th August 2021 said that they would try their best and bid to get Cricket into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The decision will also have support from the biggest cricket board, the BCCI. Earlier, the board was not interested in the inclusion of Cricket into the Olympics fearing the loss of autonomy but has now made it clear that they would try their best to get the sport on the World Stage and would be a treat for the fans to watch the sport and players like Virat Kohli in the Olympics.
