Richardson hints at further Olympics talks

David Richardson, the ICC's chief executive, has indicated that the ICC will hold further discussions on the possibility of cricket coming taking its place in the Olympics.

"Everybody accepts from a development point of view it would probably be a good thing if cricket was in the Olympics," Richardson said on Test Match Special during the opening day of the second Ashes Test.

Richardson's comments come amid considerable tension over the issue in the ECB hierarchy. Mike Brearley, chairman of the MCC's World Cricket Committee, has confirmed the think tank's support for T20 cricket taking its place in the 2024 Olympics.

Brearley also suggested that the ECB stance had softened since changes at the top, with a new chairman Colin Graves and chief executive, Tom Harrison, appointed.

But 24 hours later Brearley found himself officially apologising to the president of the ECB, Giles Clarke, an implacable opponent of cricket in the Olympics, after initially calling him an employee of the ECB who has to "do what he is told", clarifying that he was not an employee and would merely have to present any paper on the Olympics at the ICC.

If Graves and Richardson really do want a change, they should perhaps be minded not to allow Clarke any last-minute editing rights.

It was perhaps understandable therefore that Richardson diplomatically clarified his initial comments to TMS. "Certain members feel we have World T20 and do not need another T20 game to develop the game," he conceded.

"There are difficulties. It would take place in mid of an England season, and England and the West Indies would not play in the Olympics as England and the West Indies. But I am sure we will be speaking about this again."

Richardson made no such assertion regarding any further examination of a 10-team World Cup in England in 2019 - another imperative as far as Clarke, and indeed much of the ICC, is concerned, yet bitterly opposed by the game's expansionists.

"The decision to go to 10 teams for the 2019 World Cup was made before the 2015 World Cup," Richardson said. "At that stage we had no proper qualification pathway for associate members to qualify for the World Cup. Now we do.

"If we would have had a 10-team World Cup in 2015 it would have been the 10 international teams and that is it. Once we included other teams in the rankings it gives them a chance to qualify for the World Cup - even if it is a 10-team World Cup.

"My sense has always been that we want the World Cup to be the flagship - a tournament for the best teams in the world.

"For T20 though -and for the vast majority of associate teams that is the format they are concentrating on - we are up to 16 teams. The World Championship and the Inter-Continental Cup also offer associate nations a pathway to full membership. We have broken the glass ceiling."