Why is cricket not played at the Olympics? - Letsdiskuss
LetsDiskuss Logo
Ask Question


Posted 22 May, 2019 |

Why is cricket not played at the Olympics?

Prreeti Radhika Taneja

Entrepreneur | |Updated 23 May, 2019

Cricket was the part of 1900 summer Olympics. Only Britain and France took part in it. Britain won gold.

And that’s all there is to cricket and Olympics.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)
There are many reasons why cricket is not played at the Olympics.

The biggest is the reluctance from official bodies. International Cricket Council (ICC) never pushed for Cricket to take the stage at the Olympics. The cricket board of different countries, including India’s (the most powerful cricket board), never lobbied for this idea.

Although ICC did try to get cricket in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, it lost the round of voting to Rugby and Golf.

But nonetheless. The lack of will from the cricket bodies themselves is the number one reason why cricket is not played at the Olympics. Because they just don’t care for whatever reason.

Other reasons include:

· The appeal of cricket- The sport is popular only in a few countries. The top nations like the USA and Germany still do not care about it.

· The arrangements- Arranging for cricket matches is not easy. A big stadium needs to be arranged and reserved with sufficient amenities. In addition, unlike in other sports where you can have other games played on the ground, the cricket grounds needs to be remained untouched. It must be maintained properly. If the quality of the pitch is bad, it can then directly raise questions on game fairness.

· Too long- Cricket matches are too damn long. The ODIs last for about 8 hours. Do you really expect people to sit in patiently for such a long stretch? Not everyone is like Indian fans. Even T20 stretches to 3 hours, which is long. So, the Olympics wouldn’t necessarily be very keen to host such long matches.

 (Courtesy: The Hindu)

These are a few reasons why cricket is not played at the Olympics.

Will it change in the future?


But honestly, the cricket fans do not really care about it. How many Indians do you really know who watches the Olympic Games? Not too many. Adding Cricket to the Olympics would do no benefit to the Cricket.

Hope this answers your question.