The Great Britain Olympic cricket team is an international cricket team that represents the United Kingdom in the Summer Olympic Games. The team for most of history has been inactive with cricket only being present in the 1900 Summer Olympics until its reintroduction for the 2028 Games.
Outside of the Summer Olympics, the home nations of England and Wales, Ireland (cricket in Northern Ireland is jointly organised with the Republic of Ireland), and Scotland represent themselves in all other competitions, notably the Cricket World Cup and Women's Cricket World Cup, in addition to various other Test, ODI, and T20 matches.
History
edit1900 Summer Olympics
edit
The 1900 Summer Olympics was the only time cricket was in the Olympic program. With the British Olympic Association being the UK's representative body for the Olympics, a team under the "Great Britain" name was needed for the tournament preventing ant of the home nations from competing.
Great Britain was represented by the Devon and Somerset Wanderers Cricket Club who sent the following touring players:
The tournament only featured on match against France,[1] with the Netherlands and Belgium withdrawing late on due to difficulties fielding teams.[2] The French side was represented by the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques, yet mostly made up of British expats living in Paris with only two members born in France. Despite this, the team was officially France for the games.[3]
The match was a 2-day 12-man contest meaning that it did not class as first-class cricket.[4]
Great Britain won the match by 158 runs.[5]
Cricket was absent from subsequent Olympics and thus the Great Britain side dis not play again.[6]
2023–present
editAnnounced in October 2023, cricket will return to the Olympics for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, this time as a T20 format.[7] As a result, negotiations began on the formation of a Great Britain team for the games. Reported following the conclusion of the 2024 Paris Games, early stage negotiations between the British Olympic Association, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and Cricket Scotland on the presence of a team at the games.[8] The ECB would be the governing body of such team, though Cricket Scotland are looking to be "actively involved" in supporting the running of the team and providing players and staff. As with any Great Britain Olympic team, the team will also be open to Northern Ireland athletes.[9]
Results
edit| No. | Date | Match type | Opposition | Venue | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19–20 August 1900 | 2-day 12-man |  France
|
Vélodrome de Vincennes, Paris | Won by 158 runs |
Tournament history
edit| Olympic Games record | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | GP | W | L | T | NR | Win % |
 1896 |
No tournament | |||||||
| 1900 |
Champions | 1/2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| 1904–2024 | No tournament | |||||||
 2028 |
TBA | |||||||
 2032 |
TBA | |||||||
Honours
edit- Olympic Games:
- Champions (1): 1900
References
edit- General
- "Final: France v Great Britain at Vincennes, Aug 19–20, 1900". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
- "France v Great Britain in 1900". CricketArchive. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
- Inline
- ^ Lloyd, Owen (2012-10-30). "Bach hints at support for cricket to be added to Los Angeles 2028 programme". insidethegames.biz. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
- ^ "Five sports you didn't know were at the Olympics". BBC Bitesize. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
- ^ IOC. "Paris 1900 Cricket Men Results - Olympic cricket". Olympics.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-21. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
- ^ "France v Great Britain". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
- ^ Buchanan, Ian (1993). Mallon, Bill (ed.). "Cricket at the 1900 Games" (PDF). Journal of Olympic History. 1 (2). International Society of Olympic Historians: 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
- ^ "The Ignorant Olympians". ESPN. Archived from the original on October 25, 2021. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
- ^ "2028 Los Angeles Olympics: Cricket's inclusion voted through by IOC members". BBC Sport. 2023-10-16. Archived from the original on June 25, 2024. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
- ^ https://www.outlookindia.com/amp/story/sports/cricket/ecb-cricket-scotland-in-talks-over-team-great-britain-for-los-angeles-olympics-2028
- ^ https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/olympics-news-ecb-and-cricket-scotland-in-talks-over-la28-team-gb-1447258%3fplatform=amp