Citius Altius Fortius? No thanks

At last count, the 2008 Olympics were embraced by 11,028 athletes from 204 countries. That's about 10,900 more than the number of athletes that would be in action if all the top cricket teams of the world were engaged in battle at once. So cricket at the Olmypics? Does the IOC need us? And do we need them? Yes I've heard the quips, it would be India's best chance of a medal. That's not fair to Messrs. Bindra, Paes, Vijender, Rajyavardhan & Karnam Malleswari. But hey, cricket at the Olympics. Really?

What is so enduring about the Olympics? For every Carl Lewis, there is a Betty Cuthbert to teach us what the human body is capable of in the face of adversity. For every Jesse Owens who stood upto racism, there is a Jackie Joyner-Kersee who broke down the combined barriers of colour & sex. And there is Nadia non-pareil. How many of us can name a cricket "alpha-female?" To say that there aren't any is to be ignorant of a Diana Eduljee, reputed to be unplayable by Sunil Gavaskar, no less. It took the sister of a regular follower of the Ask Steven column on Cricinfo to remind us that while Sachin Tendulkar may have been the first man on earth to score an ODI double century, he certainly wasn't the first cricketer to do so, having been pipped to the post by Belinda Clark 13 years earlier. It is sad that the women's game is not given its due in terms of support of recognition. It is the single biggest reason why cricket does NOT deserve to be an Olympic sport.

All this talk of having T20 at the Olmypics bothers me. Who would you send to Cannes? Adoor Gopalakrishanan or David Dhawan? If at all there comes a day when cricket dresses in Olympic colours, I'd want it to wear white. When nations are competing for the highest quadrennial prize, it is the highest form of the art that ought to be on display. And yet it is not practically feasible to schedule a Test championship in a 3 week long Olympics. Heck, the ICC hasn't ever been able to squeeze in something remotely close to one. And so international cricket remains unique in crowning its world champion in all formats but the toughest one. I'd rather not have my favourite sport at the Olympics than see a T20 gold rush. We already have one of those by the way, it's called the IPL.

Cricket, along with the Telegraph & the Railways, is perhaps the most enduring Imperial legacy to survive the sunset of the empire. And that makes it one of the most prominent Commonwealth sports. So have it in the C'wealth games by all means. The experiment that failed in the KL 1998 Games deserves another chance. Delhi 2010 would have been an ideal platform, provided Sheila Dixit has the platform built in time for the Games :)