Cricket & Olympics

The Olympics are over. The India-New Zealand Test series is still 10 days away. And there is no India-Sri Lanka series to fill in the vacuum that has been created.

Cricket's involvement in the Olympics has been bare minimum. It was part of the Paris Olympics in 1900, with Great Britain beating the Gentlemen of France (?) to win the Gold. Silver went to the French team. And there was no other participant due to withdrawal of cricketing powerhouses like Belgium & Netherlands. Easiest medalists ever in my opinion.

There have been a few cricketers involved in Olympics through other sports e.g. Johnny Douglas, The Nawab of Pataudi Sr. etc. But still cricket has such hasn't had much to do with the Olympic movement as such.

This time around there was a big involvement. Though not many would have noted that. And I am not talking about Lord's the home of cricket being used as an archery range. It was the England-South Africa 2nd Test at Leeds underway at the same time. Olympic movement has had quite a few sports as Demonstration sports which are not counted in the final tally going on in parallel with the main event. Though ICC or IOC may not be acknowledging it, but this was a perfect example of a Demonstration Sport as a sideshow to the Games.