Fleming backs ‘T20 on steroids’ at Olympics

Former Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming has thrown his support behind Ten10 cricket, saying the radical new format is ‘‘tailor-made made’’ for the Olympic Games.

The second edition of the T10 League took place earlier this month in the United Arab Emirates, where Fleming coached the Bengal Tigers.

Fleming described it as ‘‘T20 on steroids’’ with teams scoring around 130 runs from 10 overs and matches completed in 90 minutes.

There was talk during the tournament that T10 would be the ideal vehicle to showcase the sport at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games, and Fleming agrees.

‘‘Thinking about it, it’s probably one of the best served formats for the Olympics given the time challenges,’’ Fleming told the Herald Sun.

‘‘We thought T20 might be the best vehicle, but that now runs for four hours in some competitions. That would put a squeeze on getting through a substantial competition.

‘‘It was thrown around pretty lightly but . . . it’s got all the ingredients of being tailor-made made for an Olympics or Commonwealth Games scenario.’’

Cricket has only been played at the Olympics once before, in 1900 when only Great Britain and France took part.

It was last held in the Commonwealth Games in 1998 but the International Cricket Council has launched a bid to have women’s T20 included at the 2022 event in Birmingham.

Since retiring from the Black Caps in 2008, Fleming has crafted a reputation as one of the world’s leading T20 coaches.

He relished the tactical side of the 10-over format.

‘‘It was high octane but the skill set and some of the batting in particular was quite breathtaking,’’ he said.

‘‘Even in T20 you see an element of wicket retention but in T10 – right from ball one – players threw caution to the wind.

‘‘As the tournament went on some of these young players were getting more bold in their shot selections. The scary thing was their ability to pull it off.’’