ICC rejects 2018 offer, cricket stays out of Commonwealth Games

Friday, 25 July 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

REUTERS: Cricket’s absence from Commonwealth Games will continue at least until the 2018 Games in Australia after the International Cricket Council (ICC) turned down an invitation from the governing body of the multi-sport event. South Africa won the gold medal when cricket, in its 50-over format, made its only appearance at the quadrennial event featuring mostly former British colonies during the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games.

Prince Tunku Imran of Malaysia, the chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation, formally approached the ICC in 2012 to consider participating in the 2014 Glasgow Games, which got underway on Wednesday, and also the next one. “There were discussions about the inclusion of men’s and women’s Twenty20 cricket in both the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games but neither of these came to fruition,” an ICC spokesperson told Reuters in a statement. “However, cricket is scheduled to feature in the Commonwealth Youth Games in St Lucia in 2017.” While Twenty20 is considered a fit for multi-sport events, the ICC currently holds a 20-over World Cup every two years. The dense 2015-2023 cricketing calendar and the 2018 Games, scheduled Apr 4-15 at Gold Coast, clashing with the lucrative Indian Premier League are also believed to be major hurdles for the sport’s inclusion in the event. Twenty20 cricket will feature in this year’s Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, but Asian powerhouses India and Pakistan will not participate.