This is in continuation to one of my previous post ‘Watch out FIFA…’
A game is considered for inclusion in Olympics, only when it is played by atleast 75 countries (for men and 50 for women) spread across 4 continents. Though this rule sounds good to ensure the spread of the game and wider participation, this shouldn’t be the only criteria.
There are certain games like Fencing, Equestrian, Archery, Shooting, etc which may be played in many countries but by a ‘miniscule’ population with lesser audience. Also most of these games may not require much physical fitness for the participating players. On the other hand a game like cricket is played by many and has a much bigger audience (more than a billion people spread across South Asia, Europe, Oz, Africa, Middle East, etc).Member search for game based communities in a popular networking platform gave the following results:
Fencing - 64 members
Equestrian - 141 members
Archery - 549 members
Shooting - 2776 members
And some of the toppers are:
Badminton - 13,292 members
Tennis - 22,911 members
Football - 92,643 members
Basketball - 138,451 members
Cricket - 157,287 members
This clearly shows the popularity for Cricket as a game with a much bigger following compared to current Olympics events like Fencing, Equestrian, Archery and Shooting. This doesn’t mean WWE (122,198 members) deserves a place in Olympics. WWE is not a competitive sport.
Cricket deserves a place, not only because it has a bigger following but its players are more tougher compared to players of many other games in Olympics. Cricket players can easily play a 30 minute TT game, but TT players will collapse if they play even a one day game (test match is not even in their dreams). Also for overall development of a player, my vote always goes for Cricket, because it is not only a physical game, but a strategic mental game too. This game nurtures leadership qualities, team management, strategy and some more related inputs wrt management.
Cricket’s shorter version, T20 Cricket will be a perfect fit for Olympics. I’m happy that T20 is included in the 2010 Asian Games. Hope the organizers take into consideration the positives of Cricket and include it in its regular events calendar from 2016 Olympics onwards.previous post >>> Indian Origin Players, Indian Olympic Dreams and Cricket
