MUMBAI: Cricket’s absence from Commonwealth Games will continue at least until the 2018 Games in Australia after the International Cricket Council (ICC) turned down an invitation from the governing body of the multi-sport event.
South Africa won the gold medal when cricket, in its 50-over format, made its only appearance at the quadrennial event featuring mostly former British colonies during the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games.
Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja’afar of Malaysia, the chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation, formally approached the ICC in 2012 to consider participating in the 2014 Glasgow Games, which got underway on Wednesday, and also the next one.
“There were discussions about the inclusion of men’s and women’s Twenty20 cricket in both the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games but neither of these came to fruition,” an ICC spokesperson said in a statement. Reuters