how about cricket as olympic sport?

[Kishore Dandu]

I know many countries are part of the 'International Cricket Counsil' and the money involved in major cricket tournaments is always goingup.

With respect to coverage, I would say about 20% of world population does care about cricket and do follow it on a professional level.

It was once a part of olympics(but only once in 1920s).

Cricket needs to be part of olympics.

It will be awesome to see cricket in there with other competitions.

[V Chauhan]

With respect to coverage, I would say about 20% of world population does care about cricket and do follow it on a professional level.

Out of which about 17% belong to India only. I would say lets calculate the coverage in terms of the number of Countries that actively participate in International Cricket.

[Don Stadler]

Why not? The UK, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan, India. Seems fairly widespread to me! Look at some of the sports which qualify now? Judo, Table Tennis?!!! Curling in the Winter Olympics.

[Kishore Dandu]

Originally posted by Deepak Mahbubani:
Its not the question of how many countries participate. The point is, its a very slow and boring game. It would take atleast 2 months just to figure out the winner if cricket were in Olympics.

Moreover, this game has not attracted much interst world-wide because of match-fixing and other allegations.

The schedule can be made similar to ICC knockout tournament. It should wrapup in 2-3 weeks that way. And the TV money involved with this event should justify the inclusion in any location.

If softwall is a olympic sport, cricket should be.

[Kishore Dandu]

Originally posted by Basudev Agrawal:


Out of which about 17% belong to India only. I would say lets calculate the coverage in terms of the number of Countries that actively participate in International Cricket.

almost all the 1st generation cricket playing country people who live in US, UK and Australia do care a lot about cricket.

When Judo, softball can be in olympics, cricket should be too.

It does not take lot of money to setup cricket pitches and organize like ICC knowout tournament.

[Alan Wanwierd]

indeed their is no particular reason why cricket shouldnt be included - there are at least 7 countries with significant participation in the sport.

The Olympics is one of those times when we all get to watch some of the silly games - so why exclude anything? We already have synchronised diving, curling, ping-pong, dressage, softball etc etc and a whole host of events that outside the small world of interested viewers we watch with incredulity at how silly things look so why not add:
1) Cricket.. (just to confuse all the Americans)
2) Chess
3) Darts
4) Monopoly !!! (cmon admit it - it'd be fun!)
5) Sheep trials!! (may be NZ could actually win a medal? )

..of course in all seriousness there are already far too many events in the olympics and the whole thing is a bloated circus.. why not just cut it back to the original events throwing/running/wrestling?

[Richard Hawkes]

Adding criket will just make it harder to pretend the Olympics are interesting

[Pradeep bhatt]

India wont even win a medal in cricket. It will draw blank. In the last olympics it had won a bronze but this time it will be 0.

[Helen Thomas]

Twenty 20 cricket is faster and becoming ever more popular, a new format introduced in the UK in 2003. 20 overs per side, with the teams divided into three groups North , Midlands/West/Wales and South, playing in the evening, with no more than 75 mins per innings More details from CricketWeb -2020 Rules
http://www.cricketweb.net/england/domestic/twenty20cup/rules.shtml

[Helen Thomas]

New Olympic sports :


Rowing : This is not about men in a boat but the debate over the outcome of the drug testing.

the Olympic "I won't compete against you because your country..." marathons.

Diving : Organisers are yet to confirm whether this is the exercise by the pool or the soccer is kicking off early. For those who can't remember the difference between the two, think back to the year when a certain, not to be named diver, hit the edge of the board and and was found clutching his head in pain as if shot. Mind you that describes the soccer players after each tackle as well. Think of the one by the pool as having water.

NBA basketball star Yao Ming has vowed to stop shaving for 6 months if China fail to reach the Quarter Finals. Let us hope that it has better results than when Michael Moore stopped brushing his teeth for 6 months and liked it so much he bought the company.

From http://www.thespoof.com

[Varun Khanna]

If I am not wrong, there is some criterion for a game to be part of Olympic ... something like atleast 40 participating nations should play it at highest level or so .... (???)

But don't know why Chess is not included in Olympic
[ August 16, 2004: Message edited by: K Varun ]

[Joe King]

Seeing as its mostly Commonwealth countries that play cricket (due to Britain's habit of inventing games for other countries to thrash us at), perhaps cricket should be part of the Commonwealth games, if it isn't in the Olympics.

[Pradeep bhatt]

Originally posted by Joe King:
Seeing as its mostly Commonwealth countries that play cricket (due to Britain's habit of inventing games for other countries to thrash us at), perhaps cricket should be part of the Commonwealth games, if it isn't in the Olympics.

It was part of common wealth games some years back ..Was it 1998 , dont remember. I think Australia won the gold. India sent a weak team to the games and lost all mathces and Tendulkar was part of the team. He scored lot of 0's.

India had sent its full strength to Canada to play matches against Pakistan during the same time.

[Helen Thomas]

Ed Smith's book called Playing Hardball:

A cultural comparison of two national games - cricket and baseball. Kent cricketer Ed Smith has spent his winters training with the New York Mets, enabling him to contrast and compare in every respect the two most iconic of sports from the inside. Far from an academic cultural analysis, this is written with the passion and sympathy of a genuine fan with the added insights of a professional player.

No surprises if the game changes enough to get a wider audience.
In many ways cricket and baseball are not a million miles apart.
Anyway once a nation keeps getting beaten often enough it's time to change the rules.


[ August 16, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]

[Varun Khanna]

India sent a weak team to the games and lost all mathces and Tendulkar was part of the team. He scored lot of 0's.


Olympics --> History of Cricket in Global games --> Common wealth games -->
Cricket --> Indian performance --> Sachin Tendulkar --> Sachin's failure


In Roger Waters' language, I must say :
Hey preachers ... leave this kid alone .. on an all he's just a .. another brick in the wall
[ August 16, 2004: Message edited by: K Varun ]

[basha khan]

Originally posted by Helen Thomas:
Twenty 20 cricket is faster and becoming ever more popular,

What abt test cricket?.And it's beutifull "lazyness"?.to lose it?.I like test cricket.One day cricket bring tension abt who lose/win.Initial days of test cricket dont have that problom.I simply enjoy cricket,either bowling and batting,without concern abt win/lose and with sync with it's "lazyness".It's wonderfull to watch test cricket.With it's slow pace with peanuts and soft drink.

Can test cricket included in olympics as an item?.

---
basha

[Kishore Dandu]

According to the International Cricket Counsil(ICC) site, there are almost 100 member countries.

To reiterate, it does not cost a lot to create couple of cricket pitches and get the olympic event going. I can say that viewership for this event will be in the top 5 of all the events in the olympic(bettting aswell).

[David O'Meara]

(troll) No thanks, Australia has enough gold medals

But I agree, it could be included but has a long was to go before it should be. There needs to be more countries able to field competitive teams (unlike Canada, Netherlands etc), and the game format has to be looked at.

I've had a look into the Twenty 20 format but haven't seen a game yet, and I'm not sure I like it. It looks too much like gladatorial cricket, with the excitement maximised for the crowd, but the finess removed. It's slash and burn cricket.

[Pradeep bhatt]

I can say that viewership for this event will be in the top 5 of all the events in the olympic

Yeah, Indians will be watching it. :roll:

Is there a decline in Olympic viewership?.

[Jeroen Wenting]

out of over 200 countries participating only Indonesia didn't purchase TV rights (maybe some African countries without televisions didn't either, the story didn't tell).

There's not only requirements for inclusion of a sport but also a maximum number of included sports (this to keep the size of the event managable).
That's why there is now a system of a number of core events that come back every event and a number of other "demonstration" sports which rotate.
Cricket might well at some point make it as a demonstration sport, just as Curling did during the last winter olympics.

[Kishore Dandu]

Originally posted by Jeroen Wenting:
out of over 200 countries participating only Indonesia didn't purchase TV rights (maybe some African countries without televisions didn't either, the story didn't tell).

There's not only requirements for inclusion of a sport but also a maximum number of included sports (this to keep the size of the event managable).
That's why there is now a system of a number of core events that come back every event and a number of other "demonstration" sports which rotate.
Cricket might well at some point make it as a demonstration sport, just as Curling did during the last winter olympics.

If baseball or softball can be a olympic event,why not cricket. really beats me.

It will not cost to setup two basic cricket grounds.(In the town I live in Texas, we have city managed grounds, it cost them 25K us dollards to setup the pitch and other amenities).

[Pradeep bhatt]

India gets its first ever Olympic Silver. :roll:

[Nick George]

Joe's vote:

Chess is not a sport, to answer whomever asked why it's not in the Olympics.

Rugby should be an olympic sport.

Cricket is a silly game to begin with.

[Kishore Dandu]

Originally posted by Joseph George:
Joe's vote:

Chess is not a sport, to answer whomever asked why it's not in the Olympics.

Rugby should be an olympic sport.

Cricket is a silly game to begin with.

I think who ever considers cricket as a silly game needs to rethink their senses.

If softball and baseball(which originate from Cricket), Cricket should also be there. It is followed religiously by almost 20% of world population. It has vast following in many countries(when u compare to baseball which is big time in less number of countries and less population)

That is my personal opinion.

[Alan Wanwierd]

Originally posted by Joseph George:
Chess is not a sport

So what is the definition of a sport?
Dictionary.com offers the following 3 definitions:


1] a - Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.

2] An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.

3] An active pastime; recreation.

Since the pistol shooting can hardly be described as involving physical exersion I have to see it falling into category 3 of the definitions, in which case chess would definately beclassed as a sport.. and since it is played all over the world and has a huge following theres every reason for it to be included in the olympics! (I'm not a fan myself, but its no more ridiculous than Softball, Synchro Swimming, Ice-Dancing and a whole host of other things being included...)


oh and as far as cricket being followed by 20% of the worlds population is concerned - that is clearly ridiculous:

1) At least 70% of the population of any country dont follow any sport at all
2) Only handful of countries play cricket.
3) Of those countries that do play cricket, in many it is still not the most followed sport

Take Australia for example - its probably fair to say a higher percentage of the population follow sports here than in most countries, even here cricket is not followed by any more than 5 - 10% of the population.

In the UK where sport is less fanatically followed and cricket very much a minority interest sport the numbers would be less, perhaps less than 1% of the population being interested (with a sport like Soccer having a following of the vast majority of sports fans closer to 20% of the population).

So where does this enormous guestimate of 20% of worlds population following cricket come from? Are you suggesting the India and Pakistan have almost 100% of their populations following the sport?

Seems like a bold claim to me!....

(and before anyone corrects me, all numbers I have quoted were extreme rough estimates based on my own socialogical observations - I apologise for the inevitable glaring accuracies)

[Jeff Walker]

Ok,
I visited the official IOC website:
http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/index_uk.asp
to get an idea of what constitutes a sport appropriate for the Olympic Games. I failed in my mission! It did hint that to be a registered Olympic Sport, an sport must have an International Federation (IF) governing body, (non-profit), that makes up international rules and generally oversees the sport in all countries. Once an IF exists, it can lobby the IOC for full inclusion into either the Summer or Winter games (much money passing hands on that, I bet!) I believe a vote is then taken by the IOC member countries.

It's probably rigged, since I can't believe most nations do Badminton, Sailing or even Equestrian events on any grand scale, e.g. does Lietchtenstein do much sailing? Yet they are a full IOC member country.

So,
here is the official list of Summer and Winter Olympic Sports.
Summer Sports:
Aquatics
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Baseball
Boxing
Canoe/Kayak
Cycling
Equestrian
Fencing
Football (Soccer)
Gymnastics
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Sailing
Shooting
Softball
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball
Weightlifting
Wrestling

Winter Sports:
Biathlon
Bobsleigh
Curling
Ice Hockey
Luge
Skating
Skiing


And get this!!
Here is the official list of recognized sports the IOC does indeed consider as possible future olympic events!!!

Air Sports ? (Someone please explain this one to me?)
Automobile (As in car racing? NASCAR maybe?)
Bandy (What the heck is this?)
Billiard Sports (Alright! lets play snooker!)
Boules (Never heard of it!)
Bowling
Bridge (A card game in the Olympics!)
Chess (Here it is folks!)
Dance Sport (Great, Dirty Dancing. The Spanish will kill us in this one!)
Golf
karate
Korfball (Again, never heard of it)
Life Saving (Get real. How do you practice this exactly?)
MotorCycle Racing (Ok now, less than 500cc perhaps?)
Mountain Climbing
Netball
Orienteeing
Pelota Vasca (And that would be what ???)
Polo (I thought it was already included!)
Power Boating (amazing!)
Racquetball
Roller Sports
Rugby (About time. If soccer is in, so should Rugby)
Squash
Sumo
Surfing (Strange, but I agree it's at least a valid sport)
Tug Of War (Get real!)
Underwater Sports (Someone please explain ??)
Water Skiing
Wushu (again, ???)

Jeff Walker

[Kishore Dandu]

Originally posted by Adrian Wallace:


2) Only handful of countries play cricket.
3) Of those countries that do play cricket, in many it is still not the most followed sport

Take Australia for example - its probably fair to say a higher percentage of the population follow sports here than in most countries, even here cricket is not followed by any more than 5 - 10% of the population.

In the UK where sport is less fanatically followed and cricket very much a minority interest sport the numbers would be less, perhaps less than 1% of the population being interested (with a sport like Soccer having a following of the vast majority of sports fans closer to 20% of the population).

So where does this enormous guestimate of 20% of worlds population following cricket come from? Are you suggesting the India and Pakistan have almost 100% of their populations following the sport?

hello dude,

About 40% of Indians do follow cricket in a large scale. That number itself will outnumber many olympic team sports like softball, baseball.

Look at international cricket counsil's website. They have almost 100 member countries. It is played extensively in atleast 40 of those countries. Usual suspects are India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UK, australia, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, West Indies.

Other countries where it has very good following is Canada, Netherlands, USA( usa finally qualified for ICC champions trophy to be played next month), UAE.

Please look into details before pointing fingers at other's posts.

Here is the link to ICC(International Cricket Counsil)
[ August 23, 2004: Message edited by: Kishore Dandu ]

[Helen Thomas]

The ancient sport of wok boarding is reborn.

The Iraqi olympic diving team practising. Video
Their soccer team did so well in reaching the semi-finals.
[ August 24, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]

[Jeroen Wenting]

Korfbal is a ball sport similar in some ways to basketball (rules are different, the basket is mounted on a pole some distance from the edge of the field for example, but you get the idea).
It's played all over the world but mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium (who typically decide the world championship between us, would be nice to have another 50% chance at a gold medal ).
It's one of the only sports with mixed teams, there being a set number of men and women required to be at the field per team at any given time.

Air sports include such things as parachute jumping (speed, style, acrobatics, probably other branches as well), aerobatics, air racing, glider racing (distance, speed), etc. etc.
There's active worldwide competitions in all.

Polo is not included. Waterpolo was included and maybe still is, it's a completely different sport (polo is the sport where men on ponies drive around the court hitting a small ball with oversized hockey sticks).

Surfing was included as a demonstration event at some point (windsurfing that is).
Again different disciplines for speed and style as well as different types of boards.

Underwater sports can include diving, scuba, etc..
I fail to see the competitive element in here, but there may be ways.

[Nick George]

pistol shooting is not a sport.

Weren't they considering Ultimate Frisbee as well? That's a good, pure game.

[Alan Wanwierd]

Originally posted by Joseph George:
pistol shooting is not a sport.

I'm sure the Olympic shooting has at least three categories, rifles and pistols (at small targets) and shotguns (trap shooting)