Cricket at the Olympics

The game has captured the hearts of a billion people for the last few decades. Will it be long before this sport creates a rage all across the World? An inclusion in the Olympics will be just the shot in the arm this Cricket needs to spread globally.
Baseball id the favourite sport in the United States of America and though comparisons are often made by Indian techies who go to the states, Cricket is still unheard of. But to think of it, there are more cricket fans in India than the baseball fans in the world put together. Is it just an obsession in India, or does the Sport have it in itself to be the most loved sport all over the World?
But to say that Cricket would be making its debut at the Olympics if it were to be included would be erroneous for Cricket has been played at the Olympics before. Just about a hundred and eight years into the past. In the 1900 summer Olympics, the Great Britain and France played the sport at the Olympics. So what if there were twelve a side, and the format included a two day match with France being bowled out for 26 in the second innings but still the other normal rules of Cricket applied. Great Britain won the Gold and France bagged the silver. Pretty convenient for they were the only two teams taking part. Wish India had played then, they would have been sure of at least a Bronze medal at the 1900 Olympics and one bronze would have been enough to trigger a stampede at the airport even in those times.
Coming back to 2008, Cricket has spread to a lot of countries. Other than the elite test playing nations, there have been cricket competitions conducted by the ICC in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, UAE and the Netherlands. Going by the positive response, ICC should be looking at including more countries in the test playing nations list. But first the teams will have to show their cricketing prowess in the short and the really short version of the game.
The England Cricket Board together with the International Cricket Council have already approached the International Olympic committee for the inclusion of Cricket in the 2012 Olympics which will be taking place in London. There are plans to include T20 cricket at least as an exhibition sport. Look at Beach Volleyball, it was an exhibition sport that was included in the Olympics but it has now become one of the most watched sports on Television. It could be the same with T20 cricket for this viewer friendly format of Cricket does not really expect you to give up on five days of working life. Rather you can simply enjoy a game at prime time after a hectic day at office. The success of the T20 World cup in Johannesburg, the domestic T20 cup organized in England and the recent Indian Premier league all speak volumes about how crazy people can get behind this sport.
Several present and former cricketers have come out in support of T20 being included in the Olympics Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Kumar Sangakkara as well as Sourav Ganguly have shown their interest in featuring cricket at the Olympics. Once that happens the sport is sure to attain interest globally and a lot more countries will want to feature in this sport. There will at least be no dispute between India and America over the Indo US deal, it will all be sorted out on the Cricket pitch.

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