Rahul Dravid, a well-known figure in cricket gave his strong support for cricket’s inclusion into Olympic Games when he visited Paris on Sunday. The former cricketer pointed out that there is an air of expectation among the current players and has heard ‘some serious conversations in the dressing room’ concerning prospects of playing in the global showpiece.
Paris is hosting Dravid to attend a panel discussion themed ‘Cricket at the Olympics: Dawn of a New Era’.This event commemorates a landmark decision to include cricket in the 2028 Los Angeles Games program; it is also a significant milestone for all lovers of this sports discipline around the globe.
“I’ve heard talk in changing rooms already; I’m hearing people saying things like ‘T20 World Cup 2026’, ‘ODI World Cup 2027’ and then you hear that it’s going to be in the Olympics as from 2028,” Rahul Dravid said during his talk with PTI.
“People will want to win that gold medal, stand on that podium, be part of that games village, great sporting occasion, interact with so many athletes.”
“That’s where when you get closer, I think teams will start preparing and looking up facilities. They’re going to take this seriously and guys are going to fight tooth and nail,” he said.
The famous batsman was talking with ICC CEO Geoff Allardice at India House.
“You grow up watching Olympics seeing Carl Lewis winning gold medal, watching some great athletes perform. You always want to be part of big events like this. The atmosphere, the energy – it’s just amazing.”
Rahul Dravid hoped for India’s male and female teams coming out top at Los Angeles Games.The coach stayed positive about India clinching both gold medals across genders.
“The dream for me is have an amazing cricket tournament, hopefully Indian men and women winning gold which would be nice”.
“But more than just myself here… there’d be so many Indian fans who could come to LA and support cricket, to show the world how big a sport it is,” he explained.
“Unfortunately, I won’t play but I will try my best to be in LA in some capacity or something. I might try to get a media job at least,” Dravid joked ending his tenure as India’s head coach after recently winning the T20 World Cup.
The Olympic tournaments for men and women will take place together at Los Angeles.
Defends 10.30am start to T20 World Cup matches in US
Rahul Dravid however did not have anything against the timing of such games; instead he supported it by giving a case of the US held T20 World Cup.Dravid led India to their first ICC trophy since more than ten years ago and had no qualms with starting knockout matches as early as 10.30am.
The tournament was scheduled to be held in the USA alongside the West Indies, which was considered a major stride in developing cricket followership in the region with an eye to future Olympics. However, some objections were made concerning match schedules, particularly involving India.
Every one of India’s matches were place at 10.30 am local time so as to cater for the massive number of viewers from the Indian subcontinent. Rahul Dravid did however, support and agree with this decision even though it was not conventional due to its importance on meeting the team’s main fan base demands.
“I do not believe that 10:30am start was a problem on my side honestly. We are into entertainment business where we serve people who want to watch sports. I did not have any Goddamn issue with it,” Dravid said.
For instance ,the toss can prove crucial like we saw in Australia as far as dew is concerned since it becomes part of many day-night games making conditions even between teams thus ensuring there is no unfairness among players and both sides have equal chances of winning at such times.
As a coach, under these conditions it was very even because dew comes into play during most day-night games. The toss can make a big difference as we saw in Australia but for 10:30 it wasn’t a problem; therefore it had been even-steven for both teams.
From our point of view coaching wise, I didn’t mind playing at 10:30 cause we need to also develop women’s cricket,”
Indeed it difficult when talking about facilities but if you want to grow this game and make it global then you need events like this and you have got to give up certain things for example by playing at odd hours on wickets that may not suit everyone.
It was a huge effort by ICC taking the game into USA and exposing that audience to cricket. There is immense passion for sport here in America. It was really good to play in the USA; some of the games were full.”
Cricket Bayliss believes cricket will be one of LA’s “star attractions” in four years.
Being here in Paris is very strange just looking at what’s going on with sport and how it brings everyone together. The global sporting community is starting to wake up to cricket.
I am sure that there will be cricket which will be one of the star attractions in Los Angeles.
Just traveling around a few sports over the last couple of days, when you get global stars from major sports around the world coming together in one city at a time_ I’m watching Rafael Nadal playing tennis this afternoon – then you go out to LA where you can watch leading tennis players, top golfers and best cricketers. We are gonna be really strong in 2028, very strong,” he said.
Women’s game is making progress
With increased participation by young players who are joining the fray to make the sport more inclusive and attractive, women’s cricket is developing well according to Rahul Dravid .
“Nevertheless it (women’s cricket) has been moving ahead. It’s fantastic that it carries on at once. From coaches invariably speaking about their interactions with girls just starting off their careers and other stuff like that,” Rahul Dravid said.
In every academy, the percentage is growing exponentially year in year out this is even more so than boys. Cricket is becoming wider and better to some extent. Potentially, it can be a career. You wouldn’t say that five or six years ago. That’s what we want to see.
