Rahul Dravid backs inclusion of T20 cricket in Olympics

Cricket legend and India’s second highest run-getter in Test cricket, Rahul Dravid has shown his support for the idea of T20 cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics.

“I think it will be great if the T20 format of the game can become an Olympic sport,” Dravid said, during a virtual launch of book named ‘A New Innings’ by Rajasthan Royals owner Manoj Badale and analyst Simon Hughes.

Dravid felt that including cricket in the Olympics will certainly help in global expansion of the sport.

“There's cricket being played in so many countries. I'm certainly for the expansion of the T20 game," he said.

The current NCA coach though was quick to admit that there would be some big challenges as well, if cricket is to be included in the quadrennial event.

“Obviously, it comes with its challenges. Not least of all cricket's a game that requires certain kinds of facilities for it to be successful. As we've just seen, the success of the IPL was in a large part due to the quality of wickets that were put out for the teams. The Olympics is played in countries where cricket is not played,” Dravid noted.

He soon added, "But if you can get a lot of that right and if it works in the schedule and if you can get the facilities in place, then why not? If it's possible, I think cricket should endeavour to try and get into the Olympics at some stage. It might take some time, but why not?"

The Rajasthan Royals owner, Manoj Badale and one of the co-founders of the Indian Premier League (IPL) – Andrew Wildblood too agreed with Dravid’s statement.

This statement from Rahul Dravid comes months after the International Cricket Council (ICC) asked its members to provide it with the benefits of adding the sport to the Olympics.

Cricket was contested in the Olympics during the 1900 Paris Games and it remains the only time the sport was played at the global event. The Paris Games saw a two day Test match between Great Britain and France with a total of 24 players instead of the normal 22.