Cricket in the Olympics?

While I am entranced by sprinting on a track, diving in a pool and olympic weight lifting, I somehow can't take the Olympics that seriously. I don't know. I just can't do it. So when I hear about all these top Cricketers recently pushing for Cricket to have a spot in the Olympics, I get mixed feelings. Their argument is that Cricket in the Olympics will enable it to spread to bigger nations like the US and China and allow Cricketers to win gold medals.

Let me tell you something: I don't want the US and China playing Cricket. If they get to do it, I will probably absorb it and then continue to immerse myself in the game...like any good sport would. But I am not that excited about them getting involved in our game. One reason is the ever-cramped Future Tours Programme (FTP) of Cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC). More countries will mean a more crowded FTP schedule. Plus the likes of countries such as the US -- isn't that Allen Stanford dude from Texas? -- and China have big egos and that means possible influences on the rules of the game from their Cricket boards.

Excuse me, Mr.President, but...playing Cricket requires a touch of diplomacy! "Slogging it" doesn't work here.

With India's Cricket board, the BCCI, now exerting a powerful influence over the general direction of the game in stark contrast to the floundering leadership of the ICC, I can't help but wonder if these international Cricketers might want the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to somehow take over the game simply because they don't want some third-world Asian country on top of things. No, wait! That is a ludicrous thought!