Cricket and Olympics: Glorious return to the big stage

Twenty-three years after Test cricket was played for the first ever time in 1877, the game found its way into the hallowed arena of Olympics in the 1900 edition in Paris. Interestingly, the modern version of Olympic Games had just begun four years ago in 1896 in Athens, Greece and the gentleman’s game was included in its second edition. As per a PTI feature which retrieved archival data, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the father of Modern Olympics, wanted cricket as a part of 1896 Games but there weren’t any entries. But it was included in the 1900 Games in Paris, which was less of an Olympics and more of a World Trade Fair, which started in May and ended in October – a grand period of six months in which the country wanted to showcase itself to the world. Like Pakistan and India fought for hosting rights of Asia Cup, in the ancient times the fight was between the Netherlands and Belgium, who were also supposed to take part in the cricket competition but withdrew after their proposal to co-host the 1900 Olympics was rejected.

Hence, by all accounts, the two-day cricket match billed as an Olympic final between Great Britain and France was a 12-a-side affair where 22 out of the 24 were Englishmen.

The Olympic cricket programme was a one-match, two-day affair, with a cumulative score of 366 runs across four innings. It was held inside the Vélodrome de Vincennes, a cycling track with ridiculously short square boundaries, less than 30 metres from the centre of the pitch. If there were 24 people in the field of play, documents of that time suggest that not even 20 had watched that match over two days. While the Great Britain won the gold medal and a miniature of the Eiffel Tower, the French team was given the silver. R Horne, H Terry, W Anderson, D Robinson, W Browning were weekend cricketers, who formed the French Athletic Club Union, primarily for the British expats living in France. And what did they do fora living? Well, they were building the Eiffel Tower. No wonder that the French team was all out for26 in pursuit of 184 with no one reaching double figures.123 years later, the news that cricket has been included as an event in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is a notable milestone for the game for sure.

Having broken free from the long grind called Test cricket, (the sole form of play for more than nine decades since its inception) in 1971, when the first ever One-Day International was played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the game moved to the latest version – T20- when Australia played New Zealand in the new format on February 17,2005, a few months after the women’s team played it in August 2004 between England and New Zealand. With cricket and commerce having built a strong, symbiotic relationship in this phase with the 15- year success story of Indian Premier League and global conglomerates investing heavily in technology and player auctions, the IOC meeting held in Mumbai was left with no choice than include it, given the ever increasing surge in popularity for the game in all corners of the globe. It would be interesting to see and track what unfolds in the future.