Does cricket have Olympic future in Brisbane and, maybe, India?
Team GB may put forward a cricket team for the LA 2028 Olympic Games, but with Australia and potentially India hosting next does the sport have a long-term future?
Over a decade ago at the London 2012 Olympics Welshmen Ryan Giggs, Joe Allen, and Neil Taylor joined the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Micah Richards and Aaron Ramsey in a Team GB football side that competed in the Games for the first time since 1960.
And in three year’s time Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh players could join an England-dominated team in a different sport: cricket.
The Los Angeles games will introduce Twenty20 cricket, with a Team GB side on the cards. Alongside a potential West Indies team – though a pathway to that entity at an Olympic Games remains unknown – the likes of Team GB could be part of a sport originally intended to be a one-off for the next Olympiad.
But the International Olympic Committee’s outgoing director of sport Kit McConnell, a dual Australian and New Zealand national who has been at the helm under president Thomas Bach for a decade, is heading to Brisbane as Chief Sport Officer ahead of the 2032 Games.
With cricket a major sport in Australia, and in India – favourites to host in 2036 – could it become a mainstay on the Olympic calendar?
Olympic cricket the future?
“I think cricket is hugely popular in Australia,” the Olympic official tells City AM. “On the field, we see the strength of the men’s and women’s teams, we see the popularity of the sport – it’s a true national sport in Australia.
“So there’s certainly conversations to be had there. [That is a] separate discussion regarding Brisbane and moving forward but clearly [you] have to recognise the popularity and visibility of the sport in Australia as well.”
Investment in cricket is booming at the minute. The US co-hosted the previous T20 Cricket World Cup with the Caribbean while IPL franchise owners have been snapping up T20 and Hundred teams in England, South Africa, the UAE and the Americas.
India is seen as the present and future of the sport, and their presence in Olympic cricket could only help activate 1bn sports fans in being interested in the Games. Indian conglomerates are also among those invested in Major League Cricket in the States and the Hundred in England and Wales.
“It’s in some ways seen as a bit more than a sport in India,” adds McConnell. “Maybe in the same way rugby is in New Zealand and football is in Brazil, and some of the other cases are as well.
“This is clearly a benefit with that direct connection with the Indian market, for men and women now with the growth of the women’s game as well. But there we really see the signs that it’s growing internationally in terms of competitiveness as well.”
Given sporting credibility, foundations and governance are key to becoming a permanent Olympic sport; cricket is up there. And one speculates that with potentially two cricket crazy nations following on from LA in 2028, Twenty20 cricket may just become a permanent Olympic mainstay.