Can Cricket be a part of the 2024 Olympics?

An indoor cricket match

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been trying long and hard to make cricket an Olympic sport. The Introduction of T20 cricket was a good module for an Olympic sport, but availability of grounds and pitches became a very major problem in front of organizers with many teams participating in a tournament, in a limited time period. Therefore ICC has come up with a new proposal to make cricket a part of Olympic sports and if you can guess, it’s our very own ‘indoor cricket’ which could feature in the Olympics.

The two governing bodies, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a delegation from the ICC will meet up next month up in order to explore different prospects of how cricket can become part of the summer Olympics, the biggest carnival of sports.

The ICC is also looking restore cricket in Commonwealth Games too, which would give the cricket council much stronger appeal in front of the Olympic committee.

Indoor cricket looks like a much viable option for the Olympics, as there will be less infrastructure problems and the countries which do not play cricket regularly will find it easier to manage pitches and grounds. With indoor cricket modified a bit it will be easier for non-cricketing nations to participate in the competition. Cricket has not been part of Olympics since 1900 although it has been to Asian games were Twenty 20 cricket has featured.

The English Cricket Board was in opposition to the idea of cricket being part of Olympics, but there have been changes in their approach recently. The chairman of the English Cricket Board Colin Graves is now supportive of the Olympic bid and will vote next month in an application to ICC in support of the bid. English Cricket Board’s initial fears were of Olympics having an impact on the English Season but now the game being proposed indoor this case also looks to be solved.

Indoor cricket is also quiet a popular game and there is World Cup staged in every two years’ time since 1995. The game in this format is played by both men and women with eight players in each side. There are certain hitting zones in indoor cricket. The game is played since 1960’s in different parts of the world.

Another ease in choosing indoor cricket, as an Olympic sport is that the game is not played by professionals; it is played by sportsmen who are not paid professionals in the game. This has been a hindrance in cricket being Olympic sports as all the cricket playing nations play it professionally as paid athletes by their respective countries. But the coming month looks promising, which could lead the game of cricket in the Olympics if the things keep on moving ahead and by 2024 we can possibly se cricket as an Olympic Sport.