International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge on Friday rejected growing demands from the cricket community to include the popular Twenty20 format at the 2016 Summer Games. "Twenty20 cricket will not feature in London 2012 or for that matter in 2016," Rogge told reporters on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Youth Games here.
"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, given its popularity in South Asia. "I actually think it's inevitable Twenty20 cricket will be an Olympic sport," Ponting said in a speech to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Australian player Donald Bradman in August. "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." The explosion of Twenty20 cricket over the last few years led to the successful organisation of the Indian Premier League earlier this year. The International Cricket Council also held the inaugural World Twenty20 championships in South Africa in September last year. The next event will be held in England in 2009.