'T10 is best format to get cricket included in Olympics'

Carlos Brathwaite said T20 not only produces high-quality cricket but helps build a festive feeling.

West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite and England's wicketkeeper-batsman Sam Billings felt T10 is the best format for the game of cricket to be included in the Olympics.
The cricketers, attending Abu Dhabi T10 League virtual media day, said that with less resources and infrastructural requirements, and 90-minute match duration will enable the successful conduct of tournaments in a short space of time.
Brathwaite said the shorter format of the game not only produces high-quality cricket but a festive feeling with more social bonding. He is confident that T10 format will appeal to countries, which haven't been tapped yet.
"It's about handling pressure and a player needs to get the basics right."
And with bare minimum requirements, the format should attract new audiences.
"It will interest a person to get into cricket. It's only 10 overs. Let's get through 60 balls and have a game of cricket. Let's see what it's like. I hope that in my lifetime cricket can get into the Olympics. And this is one way I see it being feasible," Brathwaite added.
Cricket was part of the Olympics in 1900 when Great Britain won the gold medal. And Billings said cricket in the Olympics will be a "game-changer" by getting most-populated countries like China, which haven't historically played the game.
He stressed T10 format will make an impact on how T20 cricket is played.
"It will be at the forefront of developing skills over the next few years as T20 cricket has done for ODI and take the game to another level on and off the pitch."
Billings said T10 cricket will in future become part of the international calendar.
"I will see if the game kind of picks up around the world, certainly with the Olympics as a kind of carrot, I think, that would be the best encouraging factor internationally."
Players added that T10 hosting venues should have facilities like at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, which allows the standard of a tournament like Abu Dhabi T10 League to grow from strength to strength.
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com