Rahul Dravid supports inclusion of T20 cricket in Olympic sport

Former India cricketer Rahul Dravid made the statement backing T20 cricket to become an Olympic sport during the launch of Rajasthan Royal's new book 'A New Innings`.

New Delhi: Former India cricketer Rahul Dravid has backed T20 cricket to become an Olympic sport saying that he is all for the expansion of the game. Manoj Badale, lead owner of the IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals in association with Simon Hughes on Friday announced the launch of their new book, `A New Innings`.

The book was launched through a virtual seminar and Dravid also took part in the seminar. "I think it will be great if the T20 format of the game can become an Olympic sport. Obviously, it will come with its challenges.Also, cricket is a game that requires a certain kind of facility for it to be successful," Dravid said during the virtual seminar.

"We have seen in the just-concluded IPL, the success of IPL was on large part due to the quality of wickets... if you can get all of that right and get the facilities in place then why not. I am certainly for the expansion of the T20 game. If it is possible, cricket should endeavor to try and get into the Olympics," he added.

Mumbai Indians won the recently-concluded 13th edition of the IPL after defeating Delhi Capitals in the final at the Dubai International Stadium. With this victory, Mumbai Indians claimed their fifth IPL title.

The franchise had earlier won the tournament in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019.Commenting on what makes the franchise so successful in the tournament, Dravid said that Mumbai Indians have a really good mix of experienced and young talented players.

"I think what they have done really well over the last 4-5 years is that they have maintained a really strong core of really high-quality players and mixed that up with identifying some really good young talented players," he said. "... that has really been the key, their ability to maintain a core of very experienced senior players, obviously world-class T20 players, and the critical thing is that then balancing that out with young exciting Indian talent. And they have been able to do that exceptionally well," Dravid added.