Cricket at the 1900 Summer Olympics

Poster of the only Olympic cricket match

Cricket had been scheduled as an event at the first modern Olympics, the 1896 Summer Olympics, being listed in the original programme for the Athens Games. Due to an insufficient number of entries, the event was cancelled. Four years later, at the Paris Games, there was also a shortage of entries.[1] Belgium and the Netherlands, who for a time had been considered as possibilities to co-host the Olympics with France, withdrew from the cricket tournament when their co-hosting bids fell through. Their withdrawal left only Great Britain and the host nation, France.[2]

The slightly haphazard nature of the cricket tournament was mirrored throughout the rest of the 1900 Olympics. Events took place throughout a six-month period from May through until October, and like the Games themselves, were often considered part of the Exposition Universelle, a world's fair held in Paris from 15 April until 12 November 1900.[2]

Neither side was nationally selected, nor representative. Great Britain, or England as they were called in the advertising handbills, were represented by a touring club side, the Devon and Somerset Wanderers. The side, formed by William Donne in 1894 for a tour of the Isle of Wight, had completed five other tours before travelling to France. The Wanderers were primarily formed from players of Castle Cary Cricket Club, five of whom played in the match, and also included four former pupils of Blundell's School, a public school in Devon. The side was completed by a number of players from the surrounding areas who were able to get away from business and personal commitments for the two-week period of the tour.[1] Writing in the Journal of Olympic History, Ian Buchanan describes that both sides "were made up of distinctly average club cricketers". Only two members of the Wanderers side, and none of the French side, played first-class cricket. Montagu Toller played six times for Somerset County Cricket Club, all in 1897, while Alfred Bowerman played for Somerset once in 1900, and again in 1905.[1]

The French side was officially drawn from all the member clubs of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques. Few of these clubs actually sported cricket teams, and so the eventual side was selected from just two clubs: the Union Club and the Standard Athletic Club. Both sides had strong English influences, and the majority of the team that competed for France in the Olympic match were British expatriates. The Standard Athletic Club had been formed ten years earlier by English workers who had moved to the country to help build the Eiffel Tower.[1]

The Devon and Somerset Wanderers played two further matches during their tour of France, both one-day contests, and won them both. They were not impressed by the French, whom a journalist at the time described as "too excitable to enjoy the game".[2]

Neither of the teams realised that they had competed in the Olympic Games, as the match had been advertised as part of the world's fair. Although the IOC has never decided which events were "Olympic" and which were not,[3] the medals won by the teams were later upgraded to gold for Great Britain and silver for France.

The scheduled cricket competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics, held in St. Louis, was cancelled at short notice due to a lack of entries and facilities, and the sport has not been included in the Olympic Games since.[2]

As the match was 12-a-side and scheduled for only two days, it does not have first-class status.[4] Nevertheless, it was the only international cricket match played that year.[5]

• List of Olympic venues in discontinued events

References

• "Final: France v Great Britain at Vincennes, Aug 19–20, 1900". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
• "France v Great Britain in 1900". CricketArchive. Retrieved 6 November 2010.

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cricket at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

• www.icc-cricket.com
• Marylebone Cricket Club