Cricket dealt Olympics blow

Twenty20 inclusion is not on the agenda for IOC chief

By Elliot Ball   Last updated: 17th October 2008  

Cricket dealt Olympics blow

Rogge: Rejected demands

Twenty20 cricket will not feature in London 2012 or for that matter in 2016.

Jacques Rogge
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International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge insists cricket will not to be included in the 2016 Games.

There has been growing demands from the cricket community to include the popular Twenty20 format at the Olympics.

Rogge has confirmed talks are ongoing over two more sports being introduced to the games, but the IOC president has rejected any idea of cricket being one of them.

"Twenty20 cricket will not feature in London 2012 or for that matter in 2016," Rogge said.

"We are adding two more disciplines for the 2016 Games. The new sports that could be added are squash, softball, baseball, karate, rugby and golf. But there is no cricket."

Leading cricketers like Australian captain Ricky Ponting have called for cricket's shortest version to be included in the Olympics, although only 10 nations play the game at the top level.

Ponting said after the Beijing Olympics in August that it was only a matter of time before the sport's newest form was included in the Games.

"I actually think it's inevitable Twenty20 cricket will be an Olympic sport," Ponting said.

"You think about the audiences in South Asia, 22 or 23 per cent of the world's population is based in that area.

"The IOC could do a lot worse than put cricket into the Olympics."

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