Since taking over as the president of the ICC, Sharad Pawar?s reign has been mired in controversy. He has failed to get his preferred candidate, John Howard, elected as the president (elect), failed to check spot fixing from happening and has now incurred the wrath of the Pakistanis for suggesting an end to the rotation policy in picking future presidents of the ICC. While the ICC is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons, except the staging of a very successful 2011 World Cup, it will soon have a chance to redeem itself if it decides on making an application for cricket?s inclusion in the Olympics in its annual meeting in London. Cricket, looking at the list of sports recently included in the summer Olympics, certainly deserves its place in the world?s greatest sporting spectacle. If rugby sevens and mountain biking can, so can cricket.
What this statement leaves unsaid is the amount of persuasion and determined lobbying necessary in getting a sport included in the summer games. And India, more than anyone else, should make this into a determined agenda. Not only will it open up another medal prospect for India, it will also ensure that the visibility of the games go up manifold in the country come Rio 2016 and perhaps Tokyo or Madrid 2020.
Cricket, as is known, was part of the Olympic programme in 1900 with the French, among others, competing for honours. But with Test match cricket as the only serious form of the sport then, it was only natural that cricket would lose out to other sporting disciplines in the summer games. But with T-20 now a rage and with matches getting wrapped up in two-and-a-half hours, just some 45 minutes more than a football game taking into account the ten minute half time, it is evident that the ICC has a real case for the sports? inclusion.
Having spoken to the IOC President Jacques Rogge during his visit to India in October 2010, one can confirm that he is in favour of cricket?s inclusion in the Olympics. Rogge, a cricket follower, has recently reiterated his support for the game and has stated that he has seen the many exploits of Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne. While Rogge will no longer be in the chair in 2013, but that he will surely have an influence in the IOC?s ranks is certain. This is because there?s hardly any opposition to him after the gradual marginalisation of the Canadian Richard Pound, his rival for the presidency some years earlier. Pound, the founder president of Wada, is now cooling his heels as chancellor of McGill University in Canada while Rogge continues to control the reigns of the IOC.
The timing then is just about right. Come 2012 and the Olympics will be moving to London where cricket continues to enjoy tremendous support as is evident from the sold out boards at Lords for all of India?s forthcoming matches. Such popularity is indeed suggestive. It draws attention to the fact that if the ICC makes an application in the coming weeks for cricket?s inclusion in the Olympics it can surely garner considerable support for its cause during the London Games in July 2012.
For the moment, however, it is difficult to digest that the Olympics will be held at Lords, the home of cricket, but cricket will not be a part of the programme. Rather, Lords will be used as a venue for the archery competition. For sure the Indians visiting the venue will make a beeline for the cricket museum, which, it can be argued, will as much be an attraction as the archery competition itself.
While it is known that the BCCI does not see eye to eye with the sports ministry and other sport administrators in India, it is perhaps time to bury the hatchet for a much bigger cause, converting cricket into a truly global sport, which has a place of pride in the world?s greatest sporting spectacle?the Olympics. And if the BCCI does indeed take up the cudgels and pushes Pawar?s ICC, it will be a great service done to the game, far more significant even than the staging of the IPL.
The writer is a sports historian