Beware of missing on Olympic cricket, West Indies proposes 2 schemes to ICC

Cathy Rush2 weeks ago

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Beware of missing on Olympic cricket, West Indies proposes 2 schemes to ICC

As IOC only recognizes sovereign nations, the West Indies La 2028 will miss one place in Olympic cricket.

The West Indies are in a unique position, and despite having a dominant force in world cricket, they have no place in Olympic cricket as it makes a comeback in Los Angeles 2028. The current rule does not allow the West Indies to be part of the Olympics as it makes the associations of nations with competition. The West Indies are also in the same position as Great Britain. Therefore, Cricket West Indies (CWI) wrote to the International Cricket Council (ICC), proposed two schemes that may allow them to compete.

The Olympics in the Caribbean Islands compete in the form of separate nations. But for cricket, 15 nations come together to create a unified team, cricket West Indies. He became the fourth country to score test status in 1928. Since then, players from those 13 countries form the West Indies cricket team.

“Caribbean has always punched its weight above its weight in the Olympics, inspires the world with our athletic talent. The return of cricket in sports in 2028 should not be excluded from our young cricketers who have inspired our athletes. There is a route, and is worth an opportunity to compete fully,” Cricket West Indies President Kishore Shalo said in a statement.

The West Indies women’s cricket team is a World T20 Champion (T20) while the men’s team has won the T20 World Cup twice

Olympic problem

As Cricket La 2028 returns to the Olympics, the West Indies are not allowed to compete in the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee recognizes only sovereign countries. As the West Indies is not a sovereign nation, but a collective of many independent countries and regions, each with its National Olympic Committee (NOC), it cannot compete as a unit.

IOC requires that Olympic teams represent sovereign nations or recognized NOC. The West Indies, as a regional cricket unit administered by the Cricket West Indies (CWI), does not meet this criteria. Instead, individual carbion nations like Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago can compete separately under their own flag. The Caribbean Islands were allowed to compete only as a unit, when in 1960 it was called the British West Indies.

West indies proposal

As the West Indies cannot compete in Olympic cricket, despite being ranked in the top 5 for the ICC T20 team ranking in both men and women, CWI has proposed two schemes to the ICC.

Proposal 1: Internal qualifier: If the ICC uses ranking to determine qualified teams, the Caribbean Island will play an internal qualifying tournament among its IOC-affiliated nations. Winner La 2028 will represent the West Indies in Olympic cricket.
Proposal 2: Global qualifiers for Associate Nations: If the ICC decides against the ranking as a qualification criteria, the West Indies proposes a global Olympic qualifier for the associate nations. All Caribbean Islands will compete in that tournament. However, the ICC has 96 Associate members in addition to 12 full members. This will make the qualifying tournament a longer. With the cricket calendar being already packed, it can be difficult to make space for such a detailed tournament.
“We are all asking that the extraordinary Olympic heritage of our individual countries is considered in conversation. The structure of West Indies cricket is unique- 15 individual nations and regions representing the male and female team, each with their Olympic identity. CWI Chief Executive Officer Chris Dehring said in a statement.

ICC challenge

There will be only six teams in the events of men and women. Six teams also include the host nation United States, an associate ICC member. Therefore, it effectively makes things more difficult. The ICC will have to determine five countries for merit. As the ICC was facing several challenges in determining the qualification criteria, as the ICC had previously reported.

Apart from the West Indies, Great Britain will also face a similar challenge. While England and Scotland play cricket in the form of separate institutions, Great Britain – England, Scotland and Wales – compete in the Olympics. However, Cricket Scotland is already negotiating with England and Wales Cricket Board to form a joint team. Therefore, the ICC is already finding it difficult to decide on qualification criteria.

“There is a lot of time to decide on the qualification criteria. It is not the top priority at the moment. But you are right, it will be difficult because cricket does not follow a direct qualification tournament like other sports. All stakeholders will be part of the discussion when the time comes,” A senior BCCI officer who is also a member The ICC Committee, told the Insidesport last month.