Men’s cricket has a good chance of returning to the Commonwealth Games if Birmingham is chosen as host city for the 2022 edition of the games, according to reports.
As per reports in news outlet ESPNcricinfo, Birmingham has been invited to bid for the Commonwealth Games by the UK government after Durban, which was originally scheduled to be the host city, was stripped of hosting the Games in March after failing to meet the criteria set by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF).
Birmingham had initially been preparing a 2026 bid but are now confident of hosting the games in 2022.
Neil Snowball, the Warwickshire chief executive and a member of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games bid company, has confirmed that the organising committee is mulling on including men’s cricket in the second-biggest multi-sport event after the Olympics. Meanwhile, the format would be Twenty20.
“It’s an obvious stepping-stone,” Snowball told ESPNcricinfo, “and, subject to ICC and ECB approval, we hope we can progress this four years earlier than we originally anticipated.
“We feel we have a very strong bid. Usually, cities have seven years to prepare to host such an event, but we are certain we can deliver an outstanding Games in 2022 that includes men’s and women’s cricket,” he added.
Women’s cricket was already included in the schedule which was planned for Durban.
Birmingham will not be the only city trying to secure the hosting rights for the Games. Liverpool has already confirmed their interest while countries in Canada, Malaysia and Australia are also expected to register their bids. Manchester has also expressed their desire to host the game.
Meanwhile, the ECB has previously backed the idea of cricket returning to the Games but there is still no certainty over whether ICC would give it a green light. The participation of the participating countries is not guaranteed yet.
Cricket has only featured once at the Commonwealth Games, at the 1998 event in Kuala Lumpur where South Africa had defeated Australia in the final.
During that edition, 16 teams competed in One-Day matches. Caribbean countries played separately rather than as West Indies which they do in international cricket while a Northern Ireland team also competed in the event. England’s cricket team had not participated on that occasion.