by Carissa Kane

Created on: March 17, 2009

The origins of the Olympics are lost within the sands of time as it is one of the oldest myths and legends known to us. It dates back to the ancient times with the games being played among the Gods of Greek mythology during 776BC. In this story you hear of "Pelops" and "Hercules" and "Zeus" and "Hades".

Another game whose history is not so far-fetched and more common to us today is the Cricket. A modern day sport with its recorded game being sometime around the 1600's in England. It has evolved since this time has taken a new place in the sporting arena.

The game of cricket was once a prolonged, "gentleman's" game of five days. This is the common "Test Match" and the longer form of the game. It consists of two innings and requires mental and physical stamina and endurance. It is the ultimate test of ability between any two teams. The name "Test" may have arisen from the idea that the matches are a "test of strength and competency" between the sides involved.

But as we all know nothing stays the same forever and this beautiful game has allowed for change. This is in the new "One day" games. Here each team has a chance to bowl and bat for a period of fifty spells or overs'
(which is six balls being bowled/batted as the case may be). This had therefore added much more excitement and drama to the game and gives you a dose of excitement from start to finish.

Looking at the development of the game one may think why was the game never introduced as an Olympic sport seeing that the Olympics in itself has changed and evolved in its own right to adapt to the liking of modern day society?

One of the main reasons for this was the issue of time. They Olympics is held on a world stage. When you compete you compete among the world. They are the greatest of the every country that come forward to contend for the world titles. It is the biggest show on earth. Therefore it is quite obvious that it would be virtually impossible to host the world in a five-day drill for just one event.

However, as was mentioned the game has evolved and is now down to one day. But this may still seem like a long time to decide a winner in a competition especially when only two teams play at a time and will therefore have to play one another in a knock-out process. It is a long time indeed when you compare it to a hundred meter dash, where the winner is decided in less than ten seconds.

Moreover, the games that are of a similar two-teamed nature such as volley-ball only take approximately half and hour. But the world of cricket does not end in the one-days. More recently, there has been the development of a twenty-twenty game in which you play for twenty overs which amounts to one hundred and twenty balls available to each team. This means that the game time has been cut down tremendously and can virtually finish in two hours time. This has brought some non-stop nail biting moments to cricket fans all over the world as the sport is fun, alive and full of action.

In light of that, this is now making an allowance for cricket to take the biggest step in its evolution, to reach the grand stage of the Olympics, where it rightfully belongs.

In seeing that it can allow for so much modification, if the issue of time was the only constraint then that should be no more. It should be seriously be considered as an Olympic sport so that the names Lara, Bradman,
Tendulkar and Lilli and all the others will be able to take a seat in their right place. Among the Gods!

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