Why Black Cap Neil Wagner thinks cricket should not an Olympic sport

Should cricket be an olympic game?

While the cricket world champions are on tour, one Black Cap says he believes cricket should not be an Olympic sport.

Pāpāmoa bowler Neil Wagner said he personally "firmly" believed cricket should not be in the Olympics.

He shared his opinion during his visit to Tauranga today for the Mace tour following the World Test Championship win.

"Other sports don't have the funding or the option to have a world cup or event like [the ICC World Test Championship] and get as much air time and sponsorships."

He said many of the athletes at the Olympics had day jobs on top of their training.

"The Olympics is special, you don't always get to see all those athletes compete."

Cricket fan Jasper Feisst, 11, with Pāpāmoa-based Black Cap bowler Neil Wagner. Photo / George Novak

"To see what they do at an Olympic event, and four years of hard work they put in is pretty special. I think cricket has got its own ground."

However, Mark Chapman is the teacher in charge of cricket at John Paul College in Rotorua and believes the game should be at the Olympics, in either a Twenty20 or a "short and sharp" Twenty10.

Chapman came to New Zealand from England in 2001 to play cricket in Hawke's Bay but met his wife to be and never left.

He said the sport was entertaining and had modernised over the years, making it popular with a range of age groups, and aligned with the new sports at the quadrennial global event.

Black Caps bowler Neil Wagner in action in 2019. Photo / File

Western Bay of Plenty Cricket Association president Rana Collett described herself as a cricket "purest" and didn't think the Olympics was a space for cricket.

She said T20s were good for the game as a whole as they were popular among a wider range of people and had grown the interest in people participating in the sport.

"I don't agree with watering it down further than a T20 just to fit into the Olympics."

Rotorua Cricket Association chairman Paul Wylie agreed and said there were many sports that should be at the Olympics which weren't, like squash.

Te Puke Cricket Club president Stephen Crossan said there were enough sports there, and the pinnacle for cricket was the already established world cups.