Explained: Cricket at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Abhijit Singh Bhambra
Senior Manager/ Content Strategist/ Digital Marketing Consultant
What are the Commonwealth Games?
Every four years, generally between the Olympics, 72 countries and territories, many of which were once British colonies, send athletes to compete in the multisport Commonwealth Games. In 1930, Hamilton, Canada, hosted the first competition, which was known as the British Empire Games.
Similar to the Olympics, some sports can be added or removed from the Commonwealth Games, and this list, which is decided by the host city with approval from the governing body, is constantly changing in addition to the "core sports" like swimming and athletics, which are always included.
Women's cricket will be included in the Commonwealth Games for the first time, along with beach volleyball and para table tennis.
Who is the host?
Initially, Durban won the rights to host the Games in September 2015, but the Commonwealth Games Federation took away those rights in March 2017.
In December 2017, it was confirmed that Birmingham would take over for Durban as the Games' host city. On July 27, the opening ceremony will take place, and the Games will end on August 8.
Cricket at the Commonwealth Games
Men's cricket made an appearance at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as a 50-over competition with 16 nations. South Africa won the gold medal after defeating Australia by four wickets in the final. In contrast to India, who failed to advance out of their group, New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka to claim the bronze medal.
The ICC and ECB were successful in their efforts to include women's cricket in the 2022 edition. The Commonwealth Games Federation stated that the addition of women's cricket to Birmingham's bid was likely to be popular not only with spectators locally but also for fans across competing nations, with 90 percent of the sport's one billion fans worldwide believed to reside in the Commonwealth.
Who's participating in cricket at the Games?
Eight teams, divided into two groups, will compete in the women's cricket tournament in a T20 format. Group B includes England, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sri Lanka, who were the champions of a qualification competition that also included Bangladesh, Scotland, Malaysia, and Kenya to select the eighth team. Group A's other members are Australia, India, Pakistan, and Barbados. The games' matches will all be categorised as T20 internationals.
The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals. Each team plays the other teams in its group once. In order to advance to the championship game, the top team in Group A will face the second-placed team in Group B in the semifinals, and the top team in Group B will face the second-placed club in Group A. Each semi-runners-up final's advance to the bronze-medal playoff.
Beginning on July 29, Australia will face India, and on July 31, India will play Pakistan in the women's cricket tournament.
Where will the matches be played?
The setting is Edgbaston in Birmingham, where England recently defeated India by seven wickets and achieved their biggest successful chase in Test cricket. In 1994, Brian Lara hit 501* for Warwickshire there. The 1973 Women's World Cup final, in which England defeated Australia, was also held at Edgbaston.
Who are the favourites?
The favourite has to be Australia. Everyone has been able to see their domination in recent years, and they would love to add the first-ever women's cricket Commonwealth Games gold medal to the T20 World Cup they won at the MCG in 2020 and the ODI World Cup they firmly seized in New Zealand this year.
(The author has a lot of expertise in creating sports content for television and other digital platforms. He has been following world cricket for the past 15 years.)