By Chetan Sharma
Abu Dhabi, Dec 3 (IANS): Abu Dhabi T10 COO Rajeev Khanna feels that the 10-over format of cricket is best suited for the Olympics, and called the Indian Premier League as "baap" (father) of all leagues.
Cricket has only featured once in the Olympic Games and has thrived as a sport in the intervening century without being part of the Olympic movement. However, there have been talks that cricket may feature in the Olympics in the future.
Speaking with IANS here on Saturday, Khanna shared his thoughts on the format.
"I think this (10-over cricket) format is something which will be more suited for games such as the Olympics. Being short, you can have one venue and play three-four matches in a day even more. There is no Olympic sport that is more than 90 minutes. I am sure the Olympic committee would be working on getting cricket in the Olympics, I feel T10 is the best format for it," Khanna emphasised.
Khanna is the former manager of Rajasthan Royals and he credits the IPL for shaping his sports management career.
"IPL is the baap (father) of all leagues. Whatever I am today is thanks to the IPL. The challenges and the experience that we get in IPL are unique. So, there is no comparison of IPL with any other league," he said.
Asked about his plans ahead for the Abu Dhabi T10, Khanna said, "My idea is to make it more engaging for the fans. By fans, I mean getting families to the stadium...How to get families coming in, women coming in, that is what I want to achieve. The game has a lot of potential and we are now focusing on how we can make it global and I must inform you that there is a global expansion plan already in place."
"The Sri Lanka cricket board has sanctioned this format and we recently launched the Sri Lanka T10 league. We are planning to do this league in June in Sri Lanka."
Enquiring about Indian players' participation, he said, "Because of the Indian cricket board's (BCCI) contract policy, we are left with the players who are recently retired. We have got Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, and S Sreesanth. We expect many more names to be added in coming years."