Cricket and Cricketers at Olympics.

Every athlete  dreams of winning a medal in Olympics but it is not that easy, not everyone can win medals in medals and it becomes more hard if your sport is not part of the grandest stage of the sports, Cricket has its origins from 16th century and it became a national sport of England in 18th century and yet it is not part of the Olympics.

Cricket  was part of 1900 Olympics and only Great Britain and France competed against each other, however  later it was removed after that year because of lack of  participation from other countries, but it didn't stopped few cricketers from participating in the Olympics.

Rai Benjamin 

Although Rai Benjamin isn't directly  involved in cricket, but his father Winston Benjamin might be a familiar name to many cricketers and many cricket fans.

Winston, played for West Indies team in 21 tests and 85 one-dayers, he played his last ODI against England in 1995 after having a career with the national side that revolved for nine years.

Recently, his son Rai has won a silver medal in the men’s 400m hurdles at Tokyo 2020 Olympics,  which prompted me to write this blog and hopefully I'll be able to provide information  about how cricketers also became part of Olympics.

Brandon Starc

Even if you are not able to recognize this Australian high jumper you will notice the last name, it's quite familiar right? and I would say yes you are correct he is indeed related to Aussie pace bowler Mitchell Starc. 

Brandon is brother of Mitchell Starc who recently participated in Tokyo Olympics in men's high jump category, he made into the finals of the event but finished fifth.

Bad luck mate, but there is always a next time.

Now let's talk about some of those people who were directly involved in cricket and also participated in Olympics but in different categories.

Claude Buckenham- 

Buckenham played first class cricket representing Essex for a career spanning of 15 years.

He went on to play 4 Tests for England in South Africa in 1910, bowling fast and picking up 21 wickets.

In 1900 Olympics, he participated as a Right back for Great Britain Football team, his team went on to win the Gold medal.

Johnny Douglas 

Johnny Played his first class career  representing Essex as an All-rounder and then went on to captain England in 18 of his 23 Tests.

He had also won a gold medal in the middleweight boxing event at the London Olympics of 1908. 

Reginald Pridmore

The warwickshire middle order batsmen played only 14 first-class matches but in 1908 Olympics he was part of the Great Britain hockey team which has won the Gold in the event.

Arthur Page

Arthur played 9 first class matches for Oxford University and participated in the 1908 Olympics representing Great Britain in the event of Real Tennis which has been discontinued now.

Henry Broughman

Henry played first class cricket representing Oxford University,  he also participated in Rugby for Great Britain four times, but it was Rackets (a discontinued game now) in which he has won a Bronze medal in 1908 Olympics.

Arthur Knight 

Arthur played first-class cricket matches representing Hampshire and also captained them twice, he had represented England football team 30 times and was part of the Gold winning team in 1912 Olympics.

Cyril Wilkinson 

Wilkinson  played first class cricket representing Surrey for 54 first class matches and also captained them to a championship win, he also led the Great Britain team in hockey and was also part of 1920 Olympics Gold medal winning team. 

Jack MacBryan 

MacBryan was teammate of Wilkinson in 1920 Olympics and he represented Somerset in his first-class cricket career

Alastair McCorquodale

Alastair was part of Marylebone cricket club and he played 5 first class matches representing Middlesex County Cricket Club.

In the year 1948, he also represented Great Britain Great Britain in athletics at the 1948 London Olympics and won a silver medal in 4x100m relay race.

Michael Walford

The cricketer, who played for Somerset county from 1946, he played in 97 first class matches and scored 5327 runs.

He represented Great Britain in 1948 London Olympics as a fullback in hockey team his team won the silver medal in the event.

In the finals of the event they faced India who defeated Great Britain and ultimately won the first gold for the country this was the first Olympic gold medal since India became independent. 

John Cockett

John has made his first class debut for Cambridge university in 1951 for whom he played only 8 matches.

Later on, he joined the Great Britain hockey team and participated in Helsinki (1952, won bronze) and Melbourne (1956) Olympics.

Brian Booth 

The Australian played for his national team and was also captain of Australian team twice in the absence of regular skipper Bobby Simpson, he has scored 5 test centuries in 29 international test matches.

Brian was also part of the national hockey team in the Melbourne Olympics (1956).

Ian Dick

The former captain of Australian hockey squad  for  Melbourne Olympics (1956) has also played one (and only) first class match representing Western Australia in the year of 1950.

Maurice Foley

The third member of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics Australian team who was also a first-class cricketer. 

He played  three first class matches representing Western Australia in 1953-54.

Chuni Goswami

Chuni Goswami represented West Bengal in Ranji trophy from 1962-73 and also had captained the side.

He was part of the Indian football team which played at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and has represented India 50 times in football, also captained the side to Gold at the Asian games.

Ric Charlesworth 

Ric represented western Australia in 47 matches scoring over 2000 runs.

He was part of Australian hockey team in 4 Olympics 1972, 1976, 1984, 1988, team in 4 Olympics (1972, 1976, 1984, 1988). He was part of the silver medal winning team at 1976 Olympics and also captained the Australia hockey side in the 1984 Olympic games.

David Laurence Acfield

An off spinner with a whooping 950 first-class wickets in a career spanning across 20 years was also a brilliant fencer and participated for the same event in 1968 and 1972 Olympics, he also won a gold medal in 1970 Commonwealth Games.

It seems like cricket can return  at the grandest stage after all with International Cricket Council chief Dave Richardson thought the "time is right" for Olympic cricket.

It has been reported that the opposition of the BCCI and England and Wales cricket board (ECB) to cricket at the Olympics has softened.

Experts are also predicting that a shorter format of the game can be played in the  Olympics which can also include a women's event for the same.

In October 2020, USA Cricket stated that it saw a proposed inclusion of cricket in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as a long-term goal.

In 2020, the BCCI in its Annual General Meeting decided to back the ICC's bid for inclusion of cricket in Olympics, at least in the T20 format. 

I hope that cricket can make a come back in Olympics so that the game can get more exposure and more and more countries can compete in the event.

Information source: Wikipedia, Google, news18, 

Cricket country.