Plans to include Cricket in Commonwealth Games 2022 abandoned

Over the last few years, there has been an increasing concern over the inclusion of the sport of cricket in the global sporting event such as the Olympics. The ICC has always had reservations over having cricket at such mega events. However, there were talks about cricket being a part of the Commonwealth Games 2022. This was expected to serve as the pathway for cricket to eventually get into Olympics.

Cricket is not a mandatory sport in the list of events to take place at the Commonwealth Games. But it is in the optional list and if the host city wishes to include it, they can go ahead with it. Commonwealth Games 2022 was scheduled to be held at Durban but there is a change in venue now with Malaysia, Birmingham, Liverpool being the top contenders. As per the recent reports in ESPNcricinfo, it is confirmed that cricket will not be a part of CWG 2022.

Gender equality norms

The reason behind this being the rule of gender equality that the games federation is aiming at. The initial plan was to include women’s cricket in CWG. However, with that breaching the gender equality norms, cricket’s inclusion has been abandoned. The last time when cricket was a part of CWG was in 1998 – with South Africa beating Australia at Malaysia. The top official of Warwickshire cricket confirmed the same. He, however, maintained that the people in Birmingham would welcome the Games even if cricket is not a part of it.

“Cricket is no longer scheduled to be part of the Games. We’ve just run out of time, really. The Commonwealth Games Federation want gender equality and discussion within the ICC about whether members want to send men’s teams is unresolved. Combined with issues over the number of athletes, I don’t see any way cricket can be included in 2022,” Warwickshire chief executive, Neil Snowball quoted.

“Even without cricket, I genuinely believe the Birmingham bid is high value, low risk and very strong option. It is a shame we couldn’t get cricket in there, but the people of Birmingham will still welcome the Games with open arms,” conceded Snowball.