The Olympics are one of the largest sporting events which take place every four years. Except for a few sports, such as cricket, this covers almost every sport in the entire world. Almost all sports fans enjoy watching their favorite sports at the Olympics. By representing their home nation at the Olympics, both spectators and athletes feel pride and respect.
However, cricket fans have been deprived of this feeling since 1900 when cricket was part of the Olympics. After the 1900 Olympics, Cricket was never included again in the Olympics. As a result, it evolved outside the Olympics and became one of the most watched sports in the world in the twenty-first century. South Asian countries, who have billions of cricket supporters, deserve a lot of recognition.
France and Great Britain were the only test teams to participate in the Olympics in 1900. After a tough battle, Great Britain won the only Olympics test match of 1900.
| Only Olympics Test Match | Year | Winner | Medals |
| Great Britain Vs France | 1900 | Great Britain | Great Britain (Silver)France (Bronze) |
After the introduction of the T20 format of cricket, world cricket saw tremendous fame and popularity. It has spread from test-playing nations to the 105 associated nations. Yes, it is growing very swiftly and cricket fans are waiting for the day when their favorite sport will be part of the Olympics.
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Considering the growing popularity of T20 cricket, many international organizations have been calling for the addition of cricket in the Olympics. The International Cricket Council (ICC), which regulates international cricket, is also working hard to have cricket in the Olympics. The truth is that fans, like football fans, want to see their national team play cricket in the Olympics.
We saw a first step last year when women’s cricket competed in the T20 format at the Commonwealth Games 2022. These games drew a lot of attention from cricket fans and received a lot of fan support. There is great hope, that Men’s cricket teams will now compete in the Olympic games over the next years.
We are very close to the years when the captains of each of the cricket teams will compete for Olympic medals. Whether it will be in the 2028 LA Olympics or in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics but it is very likely that cricket will be part of the Olympics in the future. Now, we will see the actual reasons Why cricket is not in the Olympics?
There are more than one reason why cricket has not been part of the Olympics. Let us discuss the details of all those reasons.
Why Cricket is not Considered as an Olympic Game?
Multi-Format Game
Unlike other Olympics sports, cricket is a multi-format game with three formats. These formats are very time-consuming and do not fit into Olympics rules and regulations. Which format (Test, ODI, or T20I) the Olympics should use has been the subject of a lot of discussion. Because of the fact that each format has a unique set of rules, not even the ICC could determine what format should be used for the Olympics.
Test cricket has its own rules and regulations and the duration of one match is around five days. Such a long duration can never fit into Olympics games that are very short in duration. Similarly, an ODI match has a duration of one whole day or a hundred overs. Therefore, ODI cricket is unable to comply with the Olympic game’s rules. So, cricket’s multi formats have been a major hurdle in its Olympics involvement.
ICC’s Negative Role
ICC never made a serious attempt to convince the International Olympic Committee to include cricket in the Olympics. The ICC took a very long time to gain IOC recognition after the T20 format.
Now, there is some positive hope that the T20 format is the only suitable format that can put cricket in the Olympics. ICC is making some serious efforts to make cricket part of future Olympics events.
Lack of Global Participation
Every Olympic game has a wider Global participation from all countries. This participation makes those games more acceptable to every nation of the globe. In the case of cricket, the story of global participation is very different. It is a fact that cricket is an old sport but still, it is only present in a few countries.
Since the beginning of test cricket in 1881, there have been roughly 10 test-playing nations. This shows that cricket is a very limited sport as compared to other sports of the world. So, another factor that hindered cricket’s Olympic inclusion was a lack of global involvement.
Busy Schedule
Cricket has a very busy schedule. It consisted of two teams playing in bilateral series. All through the year, these bilateral series continued. Therefore, the cricket schedule does not meet the Olympics schedule. Therefore, this thing has kept cricket outside the Olympics. Now, after the arrival of the T20 format, ICC plans to have a specific window to participate in Olympics. As a result, the issue of busy schedules appears to be resolved in the coming years.
Limited Audience
Cricket is limited to Asian countries where it has a majority of the audience. There is no cricket audience in any other Olympic-participating nations. This is one of the major reasons that cricket is not widely accepted in the Olympics. What would have happened if cricket had been added to the Olympics by the Olympic Committee and rejected because of a small audience?
However, it is very likely that cricket will appear in future Olympics due to increasing popularity in the sport.
Will Cricket be Included in the Upcoming Olympics?
India’s growing cricket industry responded positively to the ICC Push for inclusion in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028. The top cricketing body routinely delivers documents to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and LA 28 Organising Committee. The final decision will be in October 2023 on whether or not cricket will be part of the Olympics 2028.
