Paris Olympics is just more than a week away from getting underway. Thousands of athletes will take part in the Games across 45 sporting disciplines to bring glory to their nation. However, Cricket won't be part of the Olympics this time around. The sport has been included for the next edition of Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Cricket has only been played once before at the Summer Games back in 1900 when France and Great Britain (read England) participated. Two more teams - Netherlands and Belgium - were slated to take part but they pulled out after they were not awarded to co-host the Olympics. Accordingly, France and Great Britain faced each other in the final directly and a cycling venue - Vélodrome de Vincennes - hosted the encounter.
It was a two-day Test match and turned out to be low-scoring in the end with Great Britain comfortably winning by 158 runs. Batting first, Britain scored 117 runs with W Andersen of France picking up four wickets. Frederick Cuming was the top-scorer for Britain scoring 38 runs.
In response, France crumbled for just 78 runs with FW Christian picking up a staggering seven-wicket haul. Only three of France's batters crossed the double-digit with number 12 batter J Braid scoring most (25 runs) before getting run-out. Great Britain once again piled on 145 runs for the loss of five wickets in their second innings before declaring setting a target of 185 runs for France to win the gold medal. France's performance didn't improve even in the second innings as they were skittled for just 26 runs with Montagu Toller picking up seven wickets this time.
124 years later, Cricket is yet to be played again at the Olympics. But International Cricket Council (ICC) took enough efforts before the sport was finally added for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. The format and qualification rules are yet to be announced but Paris Olympics will certainly miss the sport over the course of two weeks.
