The Caribbean and Cricket at the LA Olympic Games
It has been some time since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the application by the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (OCOG) of the LA2028, to include the sport of cricket on the sports programme for the global mega-event. Since then, the International Cricket Council (ICC) would have been fully engaged in discussing the excellent opportunity the sport has been given to be showcased its ever-increasing appeal and justify its right for inclusion on the world’s biggest sporting stage.
Impact of inclusion in LA2028
One is not quite sure that in this part of the world we have enough of an understanding of just how big a deal it is for cricket to return to the Olympic Games, having been included only once before in the event’s history.
While the FIFA World Cup has extensive reach amongst nations everywhere, the Olympic Games remains the international sports community’s biggest sporting spectacle, in large measure because in one concentrated sporting spectacle, 205 nations are represented in one mega event for a specified number of days period, with thousands of athletes engaged in multiple sports at the same time, and as yet not competing for prize money. Viewership around the world in different formats establish remarkable records on each occasion, with amazing consistency.
The official agreement, for many years, has been that the Summer Olympics should have a total of 28 sports that constitute the sports programme. The IOC had long established some criteria as to how a sport may be included on the sports programme.
In the recent past, the IOC has allowed the host country to identify a maximum of four additional sports which may been deemed particularly appealing to the local populace of the host nation. These found sports may not necessarily remain on the sports programme of future nations unless, of course, either the IOC replaces one of the original 28 sports or the subsequent host nation makes the case for their inclusion as one of the four additional sports it favours.
There is little doubt, though, that some of the sports that are categorised among the four additional ones in any given edition of the Olympics would each want to be so successful as to have a case made for their replacement of one of the existing 28 that stands the test of time. Cricket would certainly want to be a fixture on future editions of the Summer Olympic Games and hence the importance that is being given to the planning of the competition that we are hearing about on an almost daily basis.
Choice of format
The ICC has to determine a number of critical features of the sport as it prepares for LA2028, the most important of which must be the format to be implemented. Now that there are several versions of the game being played around the world, with the likelihood of others emerging, the ICC must decide on which of these would be most appropriate to the Summer Olympics.
There has been a growing tendency, at the international level and, increasingly, at the Olympics, to develop sport formats that involve more teams with each having fewer players and shorter competition time. This allows for more games in the particular sport to take place, generating greater excitement while assuring patrons at the venue and wherever they are, to get results quickly.
Rugby 7s, has emerged as perhaps the most exciting sport added to the Summer Olympics in decades. In two or days several 14-minute matches are played amongst teams with no more that 12 players, only seven of whom can be on the field of play at any given time. Minutes after one game is played another begins, offering spectators everywhere continuous excitement. Teams do not spend much time at the Olympic Village, taking up valuable accommodation. This is an ideal that the IOC sees as a win-win situation for all involved, at a time when the overall cost of the Games needs to be controlled.
Beach Volleyball involves only two players of a team on court at any given time, engaged in competition.
More recently, we have seen the emergence of 3 x 3 Basketball at the Olympics where a game works with a 10-minute clock and the team with the most points emerges the winner. Of course, should one team score 21 points against an opponent the game ends, regardless of where it is on the 10-minute clock.
Of note is the fact that the respective international federations of the sports mentioned above, have also ensured that their innovations are open to allowing for men and women competitions at the Olympics. This meets the IOC’s very keen interest in producing quadrennial Games that approximate and promote, as much as possible, gender equity in sport.
The fact is that the IOC has shown itself favourably disposed to accept versions of sports that engender great excitement in an outside of the competition arena. Their appeal is enhanced by the rapid-fire pace of each game, so people are literally rivetted to their seats, whatever their location, because of their desire not to miss any of the excitement.
The aforementioned sports on the existing sports programme of the Summer Olympics must serve as excellent examples for the ICC as it considers which version of the sport it wishes to have on the LA2028 sports programme.
Of course, the ICC itself has found itself inundated with innovative ideas for different versions of the sport over the past few years, and the experimentation continues apace, although we have not seen the Caribbean providing any innovations to the game in the recent past.
Recent discussions appear to indicate that the ICC may prefer the T20 version of the game of cricket, and this may have been significantly bolstered by the excitement witnessed during the conduct of the most recent T20 World Cup shared between the Caribbean and the USA.
That the next edition of the Summer Olympics will be in the USA, a country with large population clusters from cricketing nations around the world, especially from Asia, the T20 version of the game would lead to record-breaking followership, enough to do much more than render the LA2028 edition successful but also to convince the IOC to retain the sport as a permanent fixture for future editions.
That Brisbane, Australia will host the Summer Olympic Games of 2032, will almost guarantee that cricket is once more on the sports programme.
The Caribbean realities
For us in the Caribbean, cricket being on the programme of the Summer Olympic Games is replete with opportunity and should engender great optimism in every one of our cricketing nations.
While we in the Caribbean did not invent the game of cricket, we have nonetheless been incredibly influential in how it has developed, in many aspects.
Our mastery of skill competencies required in the playing of cricket has led to the entrenchment of many individual Caribbean cricketers in the annals of the history of the sport, in all formats. Unfortunately, we have not done enough, as a region, to pay appropriate homage to our contributors to the game beyond Allan Stanford’s immortalising them as ‘Legends’, a phenomenon that has since been continued.
Unfortunately, too, our ‘crabs in a barrel’ syndrome leaves a legacy of continued conflicting arguments over the determination and justification of who fits the bill to be included amongst the sport’s legends in the region.
The Caribbean realities include having to accept the fact that there is no place for a West Indies cricket team in LA2028. Since we have National Olympic Committees (NOC) in our independent nations, only cricket federations that are bona fide members of their respective NOC will be eligible to compete for a place in the Games.
As of now, only a few national cricket federations in the Caribbean are affiliated to their respective NOCs. This will have to change considerably in the very short term.
The ICC will also determine the criteria for teams to qualify for LA2028.
Once the ICC has determined the format that the competition will follow, Cricket West Indies (CWI) and all of the regional cricketing bodies around the world would have to fall in line and organise themselves to follow suit. This is already evident in the most recent comments made by CWI president, Kishore Shallow, of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Shallow is referenced as having stated that there are plans to organise a T20 competition in the Caribbean in 2025, to arrive at the qualifiers, from our part of the world, for LA2028.
St Vincent and the Grenadines would therefore have to immediately begin planning for the proposed qualifying competition, much like football has to do if there is any interest in getting to the competition in LA2028.
We should not be dismayed by what is necessary to qualify for the Olympics since our women were involved in a qualifying tournament in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games that were held in Birmingham, England, in 2022. For LA2028, CWI will have to encourage member organisations to build strong male and female teams to host the qualifiers at a very high standard of excellence.
The good news is that Dr Shallow has recently commented on discussions taking place with the Caribbean Premier League ‘to stage the domestic competition’ next year, 2025.
Aware of the need for funding and generous support from the region, Shallow has intimated that CARICOM’s leaders would be expected to play a major role in the realisation of the proposed Domestic League in 2025. While this is intended to facilitate qualifying for LA2028, there is every reason to want the competition to be a fixture on the region’s cricketing calendar for the future. The Summer Olympics is a quadrennial event and hence there is every reason to locate the Domestic League permanently in CWI’s future plans. The process has started. We now need all hands on board.
