Why Cricket Is Not An Olympic Sport Yet?

So the Cricket All Stars 2015 is here and legendary player Sachin Tendulkar in an interview with India Today said the motive behind the series is not only to popularize cricket in the US but also to provide a global exposure to it.

Cricket was once played in Summer Olympics, 1900 between England and France. Since then Cricket has witnessed dramatic changes in rules and regulations and so did the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Today, people argue on restoring modern cricket to Olympic ranks. Let's recapitulate the main points, for which cricket is not included in Olympics:

Despite being the second most popular game in the world, cricket is not regarded as a global sport, for there are only 9-12 Countries competing for the World Cup since 1975. Although densely populated countries like India, South Africa, England have a great deal of fan following, cricket fails to attract other major countries like US, Russia, China, Japan and many more.

In order to organize cricket match, complete new grounds meeting the requirements of the game with properly maintained pitches and ditches shall be made. This requires a lot of expenditure, time, and effort. Not many cities would be ready for this massive financial burden.

It is a known fact that the hosting countries prepare pitches according to the strengths and weaknesses of their own team. It won't be wide out of the mark to say it gives them an undue advantage over the visiting teams, thus making the fairness of the game questionable.

Time is a big factor when it comes to Olympics. Cricket match takes a long time to finish. Even after the advent of a new format Twenty-20 (20 overs each side), the usual time to finish the game may extend up to 3 to 4 hours.

Despite all above factors ICC chief executive, David Richardson said in media they have a plan to meet IOC this November to discuss the prospect of the game's inclusion in Olympics. He also added, “Bear in mind it's not just what cricket wants, cricket might want to be part of the Olympics but the Olympics might not want cricket.”

What is your take on the issue? Tell us your views on the topic by commenting below.

Should cricket be in the Olympics?