Shahzada TV | Sports Desk | Commonwealth games 2022 is going to include another ingredient of women’s cricket this year in its recipe. Also, there has been a wave of attempts to include women’s cricket in the Olympics in 2020.
What are Commonwealth Games?
Commonwealth Games is the name of many-sports tournaments taking place every four years. The event is most of the time contemporary to the Olympics. 72 nations that were colonies of the British Empires once participated with their talented athletes. The event named as British Empire Games originated in 1930 in the Canadian city of Hamilton.
The numerical strength of the Commonwealth games
Games of Commonwealth are never the same in number. When it comes to numerical strength, the Commonwealth games are familiar with the Olympics. The games rarely decrease and mostly increase with the approval between the hosting city and the governing body. Due to this nature, there has been an addition of sports like swimming and athletics.
Entrance of Women cricket in Commonwealth games
This season Commonwealth games have the appreciable step of adding women’s cricket as part of the event coupled with para table tennis and Volleyball. Initially, South Africa as the first African nation was signed as the host of the Commonwealth Games in 2015 at Durban. However, constant economic crises led the management to revisit the decision in 2017. Hosting rights were shifted to Birmingham as the former was unsuitable to fulfill all the arrangements. The game will start on 27 July and end on 8 August.
Men’s cricket was also part of the Commonwealth games in 1998 in Malaysia where 16 teams participated and South Africa won Gold-medal by defeating Australia in the final.
Focus on including women’s cricket in Olympics
It was all due to the collaboration of the International Cricket Council ICC and the England Cricket Board ECB which made the initiative of including women’s cricket. Applauding the step, the Commonwealth game federation said that this move would send a positive signal locally and globally among the fans of participating nations. Moreover, this will also work as an experiment for those who want to see women cricketers in Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles.
India Vs Pakistan in Commonwealth games
Is it an enjoyable tournament where the arch-rivals members of Commonwealth games accommodating a population of more than 1.5 billion cricket fans do not come face-to-face? Absolutely not! Hence, Commonwealth has placed India and Pakistan in the same group A along with Australia and Barbados. While South Africa, Sri Lanka, England, and New Zealand fall in group B. The teams will play a T20I match on 31st July in Edgbaston.
Conclusion
It seems very interesting that Commonwealth Games are getting all-inclusive. With the inclusion of women’s cricket in the event and consideration of adding it to the Olympics in 2028, there seems upsurge of confidence in women and excitement among fans.
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