International Cricket Council Chief, Geoff Allardice, Bats For Inclusion of Cricket in Olympics

The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham will see the Inclusion of cricket in the games since it was last played in 1998 in the Kuala Lumpur Games. This time only women’s cricket has been included in the games.

Only 8 teams would be participating in the event. The teams have been divided into two groups of 4 each for the games.

The International Cricket Council is trying its best to make cricket an Olympic sport as in recent times they have also gotten support from the Board for Control of Cricket in India ( BCCI) who were not particularly keen for cricket to be included in the Olympics earlier.

Cricket Needs to Go Global

The International Cricket Council’s CEO, Geoff Allardice, told SEN that ICC is trying its best to take the game at the global event.

“In many of our members, being seen as an Olympic sport and having an association with the government and the national Olympic movement is something that is going to be really beneficial in terms of facilities and high-performance assistance,” Allardice told SEN’s This Is Your Journey on Sunday.

There have been talks about the inclusion of cricket in the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles but nothing of material has come out of the talks between different stakeholders. Cricket in recent times has drawn a lot of flak from all quarters for limiting it to only a few nations. The 50 over world cup in 2019 saw just 10 teams participating in the event. The next one stated to be held in India next year will also have only 10 teams. After receiving a lot of flak for reducing the number of teams in the WC, the ICC recently decided to increase the teams to 14 from the 2027 edition.

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