Though not a big fan of discussing hypotheticals - with the ungoing Olympics, can't resist the thought of Cricket being part of it.
Sounds like a mid summer day dream. But you never know this dream may come true one day, considering Rugby played seriously by same number of countries as Cricket, was re-admitted from this Olympics. Same can happen to the game of the Willows, which was once part of the Olympics in Paris, 1900.
In such a scenario of Cricket being readmitted to Olympics, a la Golf and Rugby, Test and 50 overs limited overs cricket is ruled out due to time and logistics constraints.
In all likelihood, Cricket will be played as T20 event - a format which would aptly fit to the Olympics. That pretty much opens up the field for all the participating nations.
T20 can be freaky and any nation which otherwise considered kitten in Test cricket, has the ability to be a Tiger, springing a surprise or two in T20 format, with a shot at the medals. The most recent example is West Indies, who is currently hammered in Test at home, defeated India in India and eventually winning the T20 World Cup few months ago.
IOC will be in a quandary about the status of West Indies. They probably have to compete separately as Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, etc, severely curtailing their chances. Some of these Caribbean nations may not even qualify.
As my midsummer dream ends, the reality strikes hard as it's still a distance dream to see Cricket being part of the Olympics - at least in my generation. But you never know, if Rugby and Golf, why not Cricket ?
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