No, Cricket is not going to be included in next Olympic Games. After mega launch of IPL, BCCI has surprised again by announcing a corpus of Rs 25 crore for sports other than cricket. BCCI and sports ministry will contribute Rs 25 crore each towards national sports development fund which will be applicable for five disciplines; archery, boxing, judo, swimming and weightlifting.
This is great news for Indian sports. Few days back there was a lot of debate on future of Indian sports other than cricket when Indian Hockey team failed to qualify for Olympics. By announcing participation in development in other sports, BCCI has shown how a private participation can change outlook of sports disciplines which are relatively underdeveloped. Cricket being leading sports in India, BCCI is also showing right leadership.
The current focus is on few individual sports only. No hockey, no football. However; this could be starting of new era of private participation in Indian sports.
SANTOSH SRIVASTAVA 