Women cricket stars eye Olympic chance
WOMEN cricketers say they would ‘love to go to LA’ to chase Olympic glory after a strikingly successful debut at the Commonwealth Games.
Australia beat India by nine runs in Sunday’s (7) final in front of a big, noisy crowd at Edgbaston to underline their status as the world’s best team.
New Zealand earlier hammered host nation England by eight wickets to take the bronze medal.
Women’s cricket was on the Commonwealth Games programme for the first time in Birmingham and had the spotlight to itself, with no matching men’s tournament.
It is no secret that cricket chiefs want to get the Twenty20 game -- the version played in Birmingham -- on the list of Olympic sports, even as early as the Los Angeles Games in 2028, although that is a long shot.
International Cricket Council chief executive Geoff Allardice said the Commonwealths had been a ‘fantastic 10 days of competition’ in front of packed-out crowds, describing it as a ‘superb advert for the women’s game’.
England captain Nat Sciver agreed that the tournament in Birmingham had been a huge shot in the arm for the women’s game.