ICC CEO makes a strong pitch for inclusion of cricket in Olympic Games

The International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO Geoff Allardice is aiming for cricket to be included in the Olympic Games curriculum, as it will result in the governments of respective countries to pay more attention to the game's facilities and also provide high-performance assistance for the growth of the sport in their countries.

Allardice added that, as far as the ICC is concerned, it's "not a money-making exercise" for the global cricket governing body, but the move was to make respective governments stakeholders in the growth of the sport in their countries.

Women's Twenty20 cricket has been included at the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham following on from the men's competition at the Kuala Lumpur CWG in 1998.

"In many of our members, being seen as an Olympic sport and having an association with the government and the national Olympic movement is something that is going to be really beneficial in terms of facilities and high-performance assistance," Allardice told SEN's This Is Your Journey on Sunday.

"It's certainly not a money-making exercise from our point of view, it's about getting exposure for cricket in markets where we may not be popular.

"And the other one is about giving all of our 106 members the opportunity to engage more closely with their governments. In some countries, being an Olympic sport gets you closer to your government than not being an Olympic sport."

--IANS

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