Olympic cricket?

George Dobell presents his case as to why cricket should be re-introduced as an Olympic sport.

"Having spoken to people involved in the Olympic movement and the ICC in the last week, the ICC are both arrogant and incredibly lacking in knowledge about the process of getting into the Olympics"
George Dobell Quotes of the week

The Cricinfo man recently attended a match between France and the MCC to commemorate cricket's only appearance at the Olympics (in Paris in 1900).

However with the game growing in popularity across the Channel, Dobell told Cricket Writers on TV that the ICC should get their act together and apply for cricket to become an Olympic sport once more.

"What is interesting is that cricket has just been introduced into French schools, which I think is almost a miracle," explained Dobell.

"They have done that because teachers are so fed up with the behaviour of people who like football. They want to instil the values that are inherent in cricket. I think that is incredibly encouraging and remarkable that it is happening in schools in west France.

Now a lot of the countries that are not in the top ten would love to have cricket as an Olympic sport because they would probably get more funding from their government and get more attention. It would really help globalise the game.

"The ICC are not terribly interested in doing this because they have their schedules and there is a lot of self-interest. They are only really interested in them, the top three of four countries. That seems a shame and it is incredibly short-sighted.

"Having spoken to people involved in the Olympic movement and the ICC in the last week, the ICC are both arrogant and incredibly lacking in knowledge about the process of getting into the Olympics. They do not have a cat in hells chance of getting in over the next twenty years.

"It would be a long term investment in the product, instead of it being a sport that reaches ten countries; you would be reaching all those countries on the global stage."

John Etheridge disagrees and says that sports like cricket should not be Olympic events.

"To me the Olympics Games, which I love, is about track and field, swimming, cycling, rowing and sorts of sports," said the Sun man.

"It's not even about football or tennis. I can't see the point of it - it is like bringing in another sport just for the sake of it."