Purpose of including cricket was to bring high-profile players: IOC president Thomas Bach

Cricket returns to Olympics after 125-year break due to its growing popularity, esp. T20 format. IOC President Thomas Bach expects best players to take part, and insists decision not driven by commercial interests.

Cricket’s return to the Olympics after a lengthy break owes much to the growth of the sport and particularly the rising popularity of the T20 format.

IOC president Thomas Bach, responding to a query about cricket’s exclusion from the Games for the previous 125 years, said: “Cricket has evolved very much in recent years. I can’t speak about 50 years before. What I can see is that this great development of cricket and we have been made aware of this not just in India but beyond by our IOC member, Nita Ambani. We have seen the figures developing. We had a discussion with the Organising Committee of Los Angeles, and everything came together.”

One of the purposes of including cricket at the Olympics is to bring high-profile players to the competition. However, if other sports like tennis, football and golf are seen as example, the highest profile players don’t always take part in the Olympics. The IOC, however, has made it clear it is including cricket (and indeed baseball) under the assumption that the biggest names will take part. “The expectation is that the ICC will provide the best players for the Olympics. This will be monitored carefully,” Karl Stoss, chair, Olympic programme commission, said.

The IOC President, though, steered clear of any conservations on the consequences of what will happen if top international cricketers give the quadrennial Games a miss. “That is a hypothetical. Right now, we have no reason to think that the top cricketers would not want to be part of the Olympics,” Bach said.

He also insisted that cricket’s inclusion was not driven by commercial interests, though media reports have suggested a manifold increase in IOC’s revenue from the LA Games because of cricket.

“This [increase in revenue from the introduction of cricket] is not the first consideration. This can be a consequence [of the decision to include cricket] of course. The most important argument is that we have seen the growing international character of cricket,” Bach said.