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Cricket and the Olympics

Should cricket be part of the Olympics?

  • Yes

    Votes: 14 37.8%
  • No

    Votes: 23 62.2%

  • Total voters
    37

Josh

International Regular
Dunno if this has been done before but does cricket warrant a place in the Olympic Games. Yay or nay??
 

LongHopCassidy

International Captain
No. Only about 20-odd countries actively promote it and only 7 have a chance in hell of a medal, if you divide the West Indies up into its member islands.
 

andyc

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Only Twenty20 could conceivably be in the Olympics, as it doesn't take as long
 

Josh

International Regular
LongHopCassidy said:
No. Only about 20-odd countries actively promote it and only 7 have a chance in hell of a medal, if you divide the West Indies up into its member islands.
Need I remind you of Baseball?? (which has been canned as of 2012, or is it 2008?? Dunno.)
 
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Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
No.

Rugby union couldn't make it in and neither should cricket. The problem I have with either of these sports (my two favourite, incidentally) is that in rugby's case, sevens was being offered as the form of the game that would be played (ala Commonwealth Games) and as others said, Twenty20 would probably be the only feasible option for the Olympics. But neither sevens nor Twenty20 are the purest form of their sports. When you compare this to the simple sports like athletics and swimming, which don't alter much at all from what would be on offer at world championships, I think the quality on show would be compromised too much.
 

TIF

U19 Debutant
I voted for yes. Cricket can be included in the olympic games in the full 50-over ODI format. When Cricket was included in the 1998 Commonwealth games, the cricket matches began a few days earlier than the actual event and so the same can happen in the olympics. However, the problem is that only about 20 countries have an active particapation in cricket whereas the others dont care about their cricket teams really. However that can be a good thing as with 20 teams, we will need lesser matches.

Best of all, having cricket in the olympics gives chance to countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to have a good chance of getting an Olympic medal, something which is rare for these countires(except probably India, but then it has been ages since we won an Olympic gold medal way back in 1980.) India, has had to satisfy itself with just 1 non-gold medal in the last 3 olympic games with the show in the 2004 olympic games being the most disappointing except Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. All our medal hopes failed one by one and were quickly out of contention and we had to satisfy ourselves with just a lone silver medal whn contries with only 1 million population, bagged gold medals easily.
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
TIF said:
Best of all, having cricket in the olympics gives chance to countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to have a good chance of getting an Olympic medal, something which is rare for these countires(except probably India, but then it has been ages since we won an Olympic gold medal way back in 1980.) India, has had to satisfy itself with just 1 non-gold medal in the last 3 olympic games with the show in the 2004 olympic games being the most disappointing except Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. All our medal hopes failed one by one and were quickly out of contention and we had to satisfy ourselves with just a lone silver medal whn contries with only 1 million population, bagged gold medals easily.
That's not the IOC's problem though.

Cricket is not global enough for the Olympics. And that's the crux of the matter.
 

adharcric

International Coach
Voltman said:
That's not the IOC's problem though.

Cricket is not global enough for the Olympics. And that's the crux of the matter.
yes it is. baseball is meaningless in Asia (apart from Korea & Japan) and Africa and for the most part Europe. but the US plays it, so it doesn't really matter does it? cricket is big in Asia, Australia, England, South Africa and the West Indies, and it's growing exponentially in the US. It should be there. If you have rowing and sailing in there, cricket should definitely be in there. The 50-over format with 20 teams will work just fine, but does a place like Beijing (08) even have cricket stadiums?
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
adharcric said:
yes it is. baseball is meaningless in Asia (apart from Korea & Japan) and Africa and for the most part Europe. but the US plays it, so it doesn't really matter does it? cricket is big in Asia, Australia, England, South Africa and the West Indies, and it's growing exponentially in the US. It should be there. If you have rowing and sailing in there, cricket should definitely be in there. The 50-over format with 20 teams will work just fine, but does a place like Beijing (08) even have cricket stadiums?
And, please remind me, what is baseball's future in the games?
 

Dydl

International Debutant
Josh said:
That was the point of my post...
:ph34r: I knew that...:ph34r:

I'd like it to be in the Olympics because I like (if not love) watching cricket, but I don't think cricket should be included in the Olympics..
 

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