CRICKET IN OLYMPICS AND ASIAN GAMES : IS THAT POSSIBLE ??

Can cricket be included in Olympics and Asian games...have you ever thought of it ??? Do you know the reasons why,cricket has not been involved in the Olympics yet ??? Is that possible Cricket can be comprehended in these global championships ??? 

What do you think about all the above questions..........


So, here in this article we are going to discuss all these questions and try to reach to a peculiar conclusion.

Cricket is the second most popular sport after Football in the world. It is spread and played globally in approximately 30-35 countries. As well as, In Asian countries,Cricket is played in almost every corner. This game comprise of roundabout 2.5 million viewers all over the world.

Cricket in Asian Games

Cricket has been included in the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010 and also in 2014 Asian Games held at Incheon in South Korea. 

• 16th Asian Games 2010 : In the Asian Games 2010, Cricket was played by Pakistan,Afghanistan ,Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh defeated Afghanistan in the final event to win the gold medal while the latter won the silver. The bronze went to Pakistan after they beat Sri Lanka in the third-place match. 

• Asian Games 2014 : In these Asian Games Cricket was played in T-20 format. And, several asians countries took part in it.

In the men's event, Sri Lanka won the Gold medal by defeating Afghanistan while Afghanistan won the Silver medal. Bangladesh won the Bronze medal by defeating Hong Kong in the play-off for third place.

In the women's event, Pakistan won the Gold medal by defeating Bangladesh by 4 runs in a rain-reduced match while Bangladesh won the Silver medal. Sri Lanka won the Bronze medal by defeating China in the play-off for third place.

But, this attempt of involving cricket in the Asian games didn't succeed because of financial downfall for the organisers. The cricket board of India and Pakistan didn't assure to make their team participate in these games.

 Although, Pakistan was agreed to send their women's  cricket team but India wasn't interested in sending their both men and women's teams in these games.

 So, due to this organisers of Asian games have to suffer a huge financial loss and they were desperate to remove cricket from the Asian Games.

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Cricket In Olympics 

Olympics was found by  Baron Pierre de coubertin.  It is a international sporting arena where almost every summer and winter sport is being played by more than 200 nations worldwide. 

Cricket had been introduced in the Olympics in the year 1900, and was played by four teams: Great Britain,Netherlands,Belgium and France. The only match of the tournament was played between Great Britain and France and Great Britain won that match by 158  runs.

But, This attempt to introduce Cricket in the Oympics got failed due to several reasons. Some of them are as follows:

•  Long Time Span : As we all know that even the shortest format of the Cricket (T-20) take atleast three-four hours. And if two groups containing atleast 13-14 teams plays, then it would take a minimum of 100 hours.

Since, Olympics are played for about Fifteen -Eighteen days and it's a very short time period for organising many sports. So, It is not a good idea to include cricket in Olympics as it is a time consuming sport.

• Not a Global Game : Cricket has an audience of about more than 1 million people across the world and is most popular sport after Football. But, it doesn't makes Cricket a global game. Only a handful of nations play cricket. Most of the countries lacks interest in cricket. This is the major reason for cricket not to be included in the Olympics yet.

• Higher Commodities Cost and Co-ordination : Cricket requires a considerable preparation of the field (called pitch). For this, a huge amount of goods and articles are required which demands an enormous cost. It is very difficult for the non cricket playing nations to generate interest for such a game which is watched only in few countries.

• Financial Downfall : In every sport TV viewership plays a major role in making profit. Since, cricket is only watched in few countries so, it's viewership is not much. Due to this organisers of Olympic have to face a massive financial loss. 

And moreover, the profit which is earned in cricket all goes to the International Olympic Committee only rather than ICC,which organises cricket tournament.

• Not relevant to Olympic Motto : The motto of Olympic is "Faster,Higher and Stronger" but cricket can be described as "Longer,Savvier and More Consistent". Olympic include sports that shows athlete's speed, endurance, stamina, strength and flexibility but cricket requires accuracy, timing, consistency and decision making, which is not best suited for the motto of Olympics.

Pic Credit:Slideshare

These were some reasons because of which cricket is not comprised in Olympics.

So, from the above discussion we can conclude that there are not much benefits of involving cricket in Olympics and Asian Games. It is not a good news for cricket fans that their favourite sport is not a part of these global events.


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Special Thanks: Aryaman Gupta(Team Member)