Inclusion of cricket at the Olympics: An unending debate

Even though cricket is now enormously followed across the globe, it has still not made it to the pinnacle of international sporting events – the Olympic Games.

It must be mentioned that cricket has appeared once in the Summer Games during the Paris Olympics in 1900. But that was the gentleman’s game's first and last appearance at the quadrennial extravaganza.

Fans of the Olympics have witnessed constant evolution and modification over the past 100 years, with several sports being included as well as excluded from the Summer Games during that period. One of them is cricket.

In this article, we take a deep dive into the gentleman's game's only appearance at the Olympics, why it was eventually excluded, and whether it may have a shot at making its way back.

The 1900 Paris Games – Cricket’s only appearance in Olympics

In the 1900 Paris Games, only four teams participated in cricket. To make matters worse, two of them — Netherlands and Belgium – withdrew from the event. After that, the other two teams – France and Britain faced each other, where England's club Devon and Somerset Wanderers defeated the hosts’ French Athletic Club Union by 158 runs in their two-day long match.

The reason behind the exclusion of cricket from the Olympics

What are the reasons behind the exclusion of cricket from the Olympics?

#1 Lack of interest in the sport back in 1900

Even though cricket is a popular sport today, with millions of spectators all over the world, it still cannot be called a global sport. With only a few teams taking part in the game and even fewer playing it to any merit, the sport hasn't penetrated deep enough into the global sporting market. Also, the fact that most of the host nations for the Olympics over the years have been non-cricketing nations has not helped the game's cause either.

Although cricket continues to pick up pace in the 21st century, back in the 1900s it was a task in itself for countries to even stitch a squad together to compete.

#2 Cricket can be time-consuming and expensive

Cricket does require separate attention and preparation, and it becomes quite expensive for the non-cricket-playing hosts to cope with the costs.

Today, people across the world are enjoying all kinds of cricketing tournaments, be it the revolutionized form of T20 cricket or the longest format of the game in Test cricket. But the problem has been the amount of time consumption that goes into conducting a full-blown cricket match. The time-consumption factor does not fit in with the fast-paced Olympics criteria.

Can cricket get a place at the Olympics?

There is certainly an argument for cricket being included at the Summer Games, considering its wide viewership among major sports in the world. The game even has an illustrious history, which makes it even more interesting and a worthy inclusion at the Olympic Games.