ICC considers T20 for Olympics

The strong emergence of the Twenty20 format has the ICC considering a bid to have cricket return to the Olympics after more than a century, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said on Saturday.

Cricket has been played only once at the Olympics, in 1900, although it was not officially recognised as an Olympic sport until 12 years later. The International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s world governing body, was officially recognised as a federation by the International Olympic Committee in 2010, meaning the ICC can bid to join the 2020 Games.

Speaking on radio at the third Test between Australia and India in Perth, Lorgat said Twenty20 was the first international cricket format suitable for the Olympics.

“We have never had a format that would lend itself to playing in the Olympics until Twenty20 came to the fore,” he said.

“We are starting to have a look at that. “In the strategic plan the board approved in 2011, we will evaluate properly what the benefits are for Olympic participation.

There are pros and cons to that decision. “We would need to see what the implications would be on the Cricket World Cup.”

Lorgat said the biggest hurdle facing cricket’s return to the Olympics was the already packed playing schedule.

“If we were to introduce cricket into the Olympics, that is another extended period of time taken out of the calendar,” he said.

Lorgat added that the ICC was keen to limit the amount of Twenty20 cricket played at international level.

PERTH, Sunday, AFP