Cricket and the Olympics

Preceding the arrival of Twenty20 cricket has been the explosive rise in cricket’s mass following. Although only a handful of countries play international cricket, the huge populations of South Asian countries — which are among the most devoted cricket strongholds — have given it prominence on the world stage. In his book Corner of a Foreign Field noted author Ramachandra Guha observes that whenever Wasim Akram bowled to Sachin Tendulkar, you could be sure that the collective television audience exceeded the population of Europe. The eccentric cousin, in other words, can no longer be ignored ... The challenge now is to satisfy the requirements of the International Olympic Committee and wait your place in the queue. In December 2007, the IOC finally recognised cricket as a sport, bringing an end — at least officially if not actually — to the upturned nose attitude that Olympics devotees have long maintained towards cricket.