Cricket chiefs to explore Olympic inclusion

Cricket's administrative body Sunday said that after a positive meeting with the officials of the International Olympic Committee it will explore ways to remove hurdles for the sport's inclusion at the Summer Games.

The sport's shortest format Twenty20 cricket has already been a part of the last two editions of Asian Games in Guangzhou (China 2010) and Incheon (South Korea 2014) but efforts to be included in the Olympic programme are far from being finalised.

The chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC) David Richardson and general manager cricket Geoff Allardice recently met IOC chief Thomas Bach in Lausanne, Switzerland to discuss cricket's inclusion at the Summer Olympics.

"We met the IOC president and we have really explored the possibilities, at least we are talking, and we are open to the opportunity if it's worthwhile to include cricket in Olympics," Richardson told BBC radio.

Richardson said it wasn't easy to get the nod.

"If the ICC is committed then we have to overcome the hurdle of the IOC accepting cricket because there are a lot of other sports that want inclusion in the 2024 Olympics," said Richardson.

"But it's not as simple as that and there are lot of issues that you need to consider and the Olympics might not want cricket, they don't want second rate teams and they don't want Micky Mouse format, they want our major format, the Twenty20," said Richardson.
Source: AFP