London: England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves has insisted that the game should be a part of the Olympics, opening the way for the sport's possible inclusion in the 2024 Games.


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Graves' comments came after Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Wally Edwards announced his support for the idea earlier this year. This week the International Cricket Council (ICC) resolved to send a delegation to meet the International Olympic Committee (IOC) next month.


Alongside chief executive officer David Richardson, Graves' predecessor Giles Clarke, intriguingly, will represent the ICC. Clarke always resisted the move, arguing that the cost to English cricket of interrupting the summer schedule every four years was too high. "It should be an Olympic sport in one format or another. It's extending the sport throughout a number of countries.


Associates, and everybody, could play in the Olympics. I will be asking the board to support it," Graves was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo on Sunday. "I'm not saying T20 is the way to do it: somebody might come up with something entirely different, a 10-over competition, who knows? It's about fitting it in to the schedule and the grounds, wherever the Olympics are held."


But Graves' ambition may need the support of the Indian cricket board, who have shown no interest in cricket's inclusion in the Games for fear of losing control of their star players' image rights.