1900 Summer Olympics / Cricket

Cricket at the II Olympic Games
information
venue	Vincennes
Competition venue	Vélodrome de Vincennes
Nations	2
Athletes	24 (24 men)
date	19. – 20. August 1900
decisions	1

The international physical exercise and sport competitions (Concours Internationaux d'Exercices Physiques et de Sports ) held in Paris as part of the World's Fair ( Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris ) also included a cricket game that was part of the 1900 Summer Olympics (Games of the II. Olympiad) was.

Remarks

For Pierre de Coubertin , the founder of the modern Olympic Games , cricket was an exemplary sport, which for him embodied the ideals of the Olympic spirit and should therefore be played at the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 . However, implementation failed due to a lack of participation.

The management of the world exhibition had planned three cricket games. A Belgian , a Dutch and a British team should each play against the same French team. In the organizers' deliberations, it was not a question of a tournament, but of three equal-ranking games with their own prizes. However, the Belgian and Dutch teams only existed on paper and were used by the organizers to enhance the appreciation. So it only came to the game between the British and French teams.

Advance notice poster for the only Olympic cricket match

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) assigned this game to the Olympic program of the Games of the II Olympiad. As early as 1912, the IOC made a number of decisions in order to review the history of the first five Olympic Games. From the point of view of that time, cricket was a sport that was best suited as an Olympic sport because of its origin and reputation in the higher social circles . The problem, however, was that it was not well known or widely used, and the 1900 game of cricket in Paris is the only game in Olympic history to date.

At that time, team competitions were generally advertised as competitions between club or association teams. In international competitions, they usually represented the country in which the club or association was based. The British team was the club team of the Devon and Somerset County Wanderers and the French team was a selection from the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA). The players on this team were almost exclusively British who lived in Paris. However, the participating association, which undoubtedly represented France, was rated as a team competition.

The British team only arrived the day before the game. For them it was only one of three games that they would play during their stay in Paris. The venue was the Vélodrome de Vincennes on the grounds of the world exhibition in Vincennes . They played in front of empty stands, only a few officials and police officers were present. Contrary to the usual way of playing with eleven players per team, the captains agreed on twelve players. The game was played on two days, August 19th and 20th. The result of the first innings was 117 to 78 for the British who scored 145 points for 5 wickets (declared) in their second innings. France came to 26 points in the second innings, a total of 262 to 104. According to the difference rule, the British won the game with 158 points. (Deviating from these values ​​according to the score card at cricinfo, according to the official report Great Britain achieved 116 points in the 1st innings and thus a total of 261, whereby they won the game with 157 points., See web links)

Medal table

space	country			Third	total
1	Great Britain	1	-	-	1
2	France	-	1	-	1

Medalist

The USFSA cricket team

space	country	athlete
1	GBR	Devon & Somerset County Wanderers Charles Beachcroft (Captain) , Arthur Birkett , Alfred Bowerman , George Buckley , Francis Burchell , Frederick Christian , Harry Corner , Frederick Cuming , William Donne , Alfred Powlesland , John Symes , Montague Toller
2	FRA	Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques William Anderson , William Attrill , J. Braid , W. Browning , Robert Horne , Timothée Jordan , Arthur McEvoy , Douglas Robinson , F. Roques , Arthur Schneidau , Henry Terry , Philip Tomalin (captain)

Date: August 19 and 20, 1900

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle I. Athens 1896 - Berlin 1936. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-328-00715-6 .
• Karl Lennartz , Walter Teutenberg: II. Olympic Games 1900 in Paris. Presentation and sources. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1995, ISBN 3-928562-20-7 .
• Bill Mallon : The 1900 Olympic Games . McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina 1998, CIP 97-36094.

Web links

• Side of the IOC to the Summer Games in 1900 (English)
• Official report, part 1, p. 69/70 (French, PDF, 3 parts in total; 8.10 MB)
• Page about all Olympic participants by Herman de Wael (English)
• Score card at cricinfo