IOC head keen to make cricket Olympic sport

[J P K]

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, is keen to see cricket becoming an Olympic sport in the future. Speaking to the London Evening Standard, Rogge also indicated that if cricket were to feature in the Olympic games, it would have to be through its shorter versions. "The ICC will decide at the end of June whether they will make an application [for making cricket an Olympic sport]," Rogge said. "We would welcome an application. It's an important, popular sport and very powerful on television. It's a sport with a great tradition where mostly you have a respect of the ethics. In the Olympics, it will not be Test cricket, of course." A formal application to take part in the Olympics does not appear to be on the ICC's horizon at present. "There are currently no plans to submit an application to add cricket to event programme. The matter is not on the agenda for the Board meeting in June," an ICC spokesman told ESPNcricinfo. Rogge, the 69 year-old former Belgium rugby union player and surgeon, revealed that he was a huge fan of cricket and that he follows the sport whenever he can. "When I'm at my office, whether it be at home or here in Lausanne, I put the telly on and I have a Test match or a one-day match on," Rogge said. "I continue to work and once in a while I hear a big roar and I know something has happened, an lbw or a run out, and I watch the replay." Rogge developed an interest in the game when he was introduced to French cricket by relatives in Cornwall, whom he visited in his formative years. "Let's be very clear, I can't play cricket, but I know the rules," he said. "I love the game. I have watched Sachin Tendulkar, Kevin Pietersen, Shane Warne, Ian Botham. It's tactically very interesting, a game of patience, a game of great skills and the only sport where, after five days, you can have a draw!" Rogge will step down after the 2012 games in London, which will become the first city to host the Olympics three times. Rogge expects it to be a historic event, and his biggest concern is the menace of illegal bookmakers. Like cricket, football and other popular sports have come under the match-fixing spectre, and Rogge believes it can have a more damaging impact on sport than doping scandals. "We had monitoring in Vancouver and in Beijing and there was no sign of illegal betting in either those Games," Rogge said. "But it would be naive to say this could not happen at the London Olympics. Of course, I am worried it could happen. We have to be ready. "People don't bet any more on the result but on the facts of a match - like bowling no-balls, who is going to concede the first corner in a football match, or who is going to make the second double fault in tennis; events that are not suspicious when you see them in isolation. "We are looking at a system whereby governments will legislate in controlling and defending sport. We also want governments to exchange information with us and Interpol. The illegal betting networks are very international. You can bet from the far end of one continent on a match played at the far end of another continent. "We've been told by Interpol that the criminal gangs involved with illegal gambling are the same gangs who deal with drugs and prostitution. So it's not a couple of guys wanting to make a few quick bucks out of fixing a match." http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/518174.html

[Stuge]

At present from my understanding BCCI is least interested in it . They will make Grade A tours with Australia or somebody else and will send B team .

[Javier]

Legalizing Gambling would help .

[asterix]

Everybody's trying to cash in Indian market and squeeze some free monies out of BCCI.. No, thanks..

[Sachin=GOD]

Unless BCCI wants it, it is not happening.

[Prakat]

As far as I know you can't compete in the Olympics if you are a professional in your discipline. It's only for amateurs. So I don't see any current International cricketer (or IPL/Big Bash etc. player) being allowed to be a part of an Olympic cricket team. Unless they are changing the rules for participating in the Olympics.

[Prakat]

@S=G BCCI won't have anything to do with it. And neither will any other national Board. Teams will be selected by the respective Olympic Boards of each country.

[yoda]

As far as I know you can't take part if you are a professional in your discipline. It's only for amateur. So I don't see any current International cricketer (or IPL/Big Bash etc. player) being allowed to be a part of an Olympic cricket team. Are they changing the rules for participating in the Olympics?

That's not true anymore. You have tennis/basketball/track&field pro players participating in the Olympics. There are restrictions based on each sport, but the blanket rule has been take off after 1988.

[Sidhoni]

:yay: :yay: that its in the 2016 olympics atleast.

[Sachin=GOD]

@S=G BCCI won't have anything to do with it. And neither will any other national Board. Teams will be selected by the respective Olympic Boards of each country.

cricket going into the Olympics will depend upon whether the ICC wants it or not (it will meet in June to decide whether to send an application or not) and we've all seen that if the BCCI does not want something then the ICC doesn't do it. So this depends a lot on BCCI IMO.

[Prakat]

That's not true anymore. You have tennis/basketball/track&field pro players participating in the Olympics. There are restrictions based on each sport' date=' but the blanket rule has been take off after 1988.[/quote'] Didn't know that. We might end up having something like soccer because ICC won't want a tournament outside its purview to become the premier championship.

[Prakat]

cricket going into the Olympics will depend upon whether the ICC wants it or not (it will meet in June to decide whether to send an application or not) and we've all seen that if the BCCI does not want something then the ICC doesn't do it. So this depends a lot on BCCI IMO.

Yeah. Once, and if, ICC does apply, BCCI willing, and IOC does accept it, BCCI won't be involved in it any further.

[rajmarie]

Hope cricket T20 gets into Olympics. That will be a great addition.

[yoda]

cricket going into the Olympics will depend upon whether the ICC wants it or not (it will meet in June to decide whether to send an application or not) and we've all seen that if the BCCI does not want something then the ICC doesn't do it. So this depends a lot on BCCI IMO.

You are talking like Holding and Nasser. Last I checked, the BCCI has one vote in the ICC like any other country.

[Sachin=GOD]

You are talking like Holding and Nasser. Last I checked' date=' the BCCI has one vote in the ICC like any other country.[/quote'] anyone who really thinks that BCCI's influence in the ICC is limited to just that 1 vote is living in delusions.

[yoda]

anyone who really thinks that BCCI's influence in the ICC is limited to just that 1 vote is living in delusions.

Ofc the bigger the board in terms of money, bigger the influence. But statements like the ICC can't go into the olympics without the BCCI's approval is absurd. If all other member countries say yes and the BCCI says no, guess what? Example, the ICC went with UDRS for the WC even though the BCCI said no.

[Cricket Tragic]

Waste of time. Hope that it doesn't happen.

[Karan114]

Olympic events should always be the pinnacle of that sport. This is the problem with sports like football and tennis in the Olympics and will be the same with cricket.

[jairamesh]

waste of time, IOC have got a whiff of the ad money trail hence...all the commotion. Some greashead must have come up with numbers and got the Jacque Rogge's mouth watering. IOC is a master at attracting huge Global Sponsors, hence I can't see ICC getting involved without getting a slice of the ad revenue due to Indian market. Much like how the swimming and athletic events are catered purely for the US audience in terms of advertisements and scheduling times. The very meaning of Olympics has lost it's meaning in to capitalism and nationalistic jingoism, there are no amateur participants in the Olympics anymore.

[jairamesh]

Olympic events should always be the pinnacle of that sport. This is the problem with sports like football and tennis in the Olympics and will be the same with cricket.

But that's the contradiction, Olympics was a platform for only amateur sports enthusiastic, but hijacked for other reasons over the last 40 years or so. It should have never been a platform for the pinnacle of any sport.