Indian legend Rahul Dravid has backed the idea of bringing cricket into Olympics for the expansion of the game into more and more countries. The batting maestro who also heads the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru said that inclusion of the shortest version of the game -T20 in the Olympics will be great for the wellbeing of the game.
"I think it would be great for the game if the T20 format can become an Olympic sport. There's cricket being played in so many countries. I'm certainly for the expansion of the T20 game," Dravid said at the virtual launch of a book named A New Innings by Manoj Badale and Simon Hughes.
Dravid also acknowledged the complications the inclusion of cricket in Olympics will bring with it such as preparation of the pitch, finding window amid narrowing Future Tour Programme (FTP, but he was excited about the prospect of watching Cricket expanding into a wider global sport through Olympic games.
He also made his assessment clear that cricket, unlike other sports, needs necessary playing conditions to be played and that the Indian Premier League turned out to be successful because of the nature of the pitches that were used which produced competitive cricket between the bat and the ball.
Dravid’s assertions come at the back of a serious discussion ongoing between the International Cricket Council and its member boards on the issue of financial benefits that the inclusion of cricket will bring to the table for both the ICC and members.
Last month, ICC sent out a questionnaire to its member boards to establish the ‘potential financial assistance they would receive from their respective governments and Olympic governing body in case of the inclusion of cricket in Olympics. A similar exercise was carried out a couple of years ago to estimate the benefits of taking cricket to Olympics but the idea was sent into cold storage as the Big Three’ boards such as the BCCI, ECB, and CA viewed the move that would cut into their bilateral series and other tournaments and ultimately deplete their sources of revenue.
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