What a fantastic week it has been so far for British sport. I have spent Monday and Tuesday down in the Olympic Park, and it has been a wonderful experience. The tag line of the games has been to ‘inspire a generation’, and I have no doubt that the sensational performances by British athletes is doing just that. One of the things that struck me about the games, was just how well organised everything has been. Often the press have been very quick to jump on the back of politicians and civil servants for small mistakes or perceived overspends on just ‘two weeks of sport’ that few will be interested in. How wrong they have been. The country has been gripped with Olympic-fever, tickets are the hottest property in town, and now Paralympic ticket sales have rocketed as everyone wants to experience their own taste of London 2012.
One topic I picked up being debated in social media while down in London was should Cricket be included in the Olympics? It is a question that often produces polarised opinion. Many Games purists argue that the Olympics should be the preserve of the amateur athlete, and that Cricket, a hugely popular professional sport has no place there. One clue to support this argument has been the response from the general public to football at these games. Despite the fact we are a football loving nation, those are the tickets that have been hardest to shift.
Other critics argue that we simply could not fit it into the calendar. Cricket already has an extremely hectic schedule, and the ECB would not be very keen on another Twenty20 tournament taking up valuable time in the international schedule during the English Test Match summer. Another issue might be the problem of whether we have enough high quality teams. The West Indies would all have to compete as individual islands and the Scotland would have to contribute to Team GB.
Despite all this however, I think the time is just ripe. Not for a full international men’s tournament though, but a women’s only competition. For me, this Olympics has been the Games of the girls. How many of you can deny feeling huge amounts of pride as Jessica Ennis won her Gold Medal. Then there was the brilliant performance of Katherine Grainger et al. on the rowing lake and Laura Trott in the Velodrome making this a perfect opportunity to capitalise on the high profile of female sport.
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| A packed Park Live where people have been celebrating men's and women's success in equal measure |
As someone who coaches a lot of female sport with my hockey commitments in the winter, it has been fantastic to see girls sport finally on a level footing in the way it is presented and reported. You could not even get into Park Live, the big screen at the Olympic Park, to watch Victoria Pendleton riding in the Sprint Final and I found myself spying through a hedge to get a glimpse of her epic final with Anna Mears. If cricket, as a sport, could tap into the Olympics to raise the profile of the women’s game, in doing so it would not only demonstrate to the widest female audience how good a game cricket is to get involved with, but it would also start to help cricket get access to funding streams in associate nations. This will result in better facilities, larger participation and hopefully, over time, more teams competing at the top level. Not only that, we should have a good chance of a medal! I know that our female cricketers would relish the chance to participate in an Olympics and for all of them, winning a Gold Medal would not doubt be the pinnacle of their careers. Then if it is a success, which it undoubtedly would be, a men’s competition could follow in time. So here’s to Women’s Twenty20 in 2020!
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