How France Snatched Silver In Cricket’s Forgotten Olympic Final

In 1900, long before stadium lights and global broadcast deals, cricket quietly made its only appearance in Olympic history—until its planned return in 2028. Played between Great Britain and France over two days in Paris, the match was no ordinary cricket fixture. It featured 24 players, was hosted at a cycling venue, and concluded with silver and bronze medals. Despite its obscurity, this low-scoring affair remains a milestone, symbolising cricket’s early foray into international multi-sport competition. Image Credit: X (formerly Twitter)/ ICC

An Unconventional Start to Olympic Cricket

Cricket’s Olympic debut did not follow a traditional path. Though intended for the 1896 Athens Games, the sport was dropped due to a lack of participants. Four years later, it found a slot in the Paris Olympics, largely thanks to the Exposition Universelle, a world’s fair happening simultaneously. The match took place on August 19 and 20, 1900, at the Vélodrome de Vincennes—primarily a cycling venue. Representative Image/ Credit: Meta AI

Originally, four countries—Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium—were slated to participate. However, with Belgium and the Netherlands withdrawing due to failed co-hosting bids, the fixture was reduced to a solitary match, effectively the Olympic final.

Club Cricketers Make History

The teams that took the field were far from national squads. Great Britain was represented by the Devon and Somerset Wanderers, an amateur club touring France. Their opponents, All Paris, were mostly British expatriates residing in France, assembled under the banner of the French Athletic Club Union. Representative Image/ Credit: Meta AI

To accommodate the nature of the clubs, an agreement was reached to allow 12 players per side, breaking from the traditional 11-a-side structure. As a result, the game does not hold first-class status. Nevertheless, its significance as the first—and for over a century, only—Olympic cricket match remains uncontested.

A Low-Scoring, Tightly Timed Victory

Played over two innings per side in a two-day format, the match saw just 366 runs scored in total. Great Britain, led by Charles Beachcroft, eventually triumphed by 158 runs, clinching victory with only five minutes to spare on the second day.

Alfred Bowerman and Montagu Toller, both of whom had played county cricket for Somerset, were standout performers. Bowerman notched a fifty, while Toller decimated the French batting line-up with figures of 7 wickets for just 9 runs in the second innings. Despite the modest totals, the match captured the spirit of competitive cricket in unfamiliar circumstances. Representative Image/ Credit: Meta AI

Unusual Rewards and Olympic Recognition

Rather than gold and silver, the victorious British side received silver medals, while France were awarded bronze. Both teams also received miniature Eiffel Tower souvenirs—a unique Olympic memento. It wasn’t until 1912 that the match was officially recognised as an Olympic event. The medals were retrospectively upgraded to gold and silver.

Interestingly, only two players in the entire game had first-class cricket experience, underscoring the amateur nature of the competition and reflecting the informal structure of early Olympic events. Representative Image/ Credit: Meta AI

Why Cricket Disappeared from the Olympics

Cricket was tentatively included in the programme for the 1904 Games in St. Louis, but once again, participation was lacking. As a result, it was quietly dropped and did not reappear in the Olympics for over a century.

However, the sport continued to appear sporadically in other multi-sport events. It featured in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia as a 50-over format and was revived in the 2022 CWG in Birmingham with a women’s T20 competition. Cricket has also been part of the Asian Games, played in the T20 format and including both men's and women's teams.

A Return After 128 Years

Now, cricket is set to return to the Olympic arena at the Los Angeles 2028 Games. This time, the format will be Twenty20 (T20), the shortest and most commercially popular version of the game. Originating in England in 2003 and fuelled by India’s IPL, T20 cricket has captured global attention with its quick pace, entertainment factor, and growing international fan base. Representative Image/ Credit: Meta AI

As the Olympic movement adapts to modern sporting tastes, T20 offers the perfect blend of tradition and brevity—ideal for a global platform like the Games. Cricket's reintroduction marks not just a sporting revival but also a nod to its curious and largely forgotten Olympic origins in 1900.

Cricket’s Olympic journey began in a cycling stadium with amateur players and a hastily arranged fixture. Over a century later, it returns under stadium lights and global hype. From a two-day, 12-a-side match in Paris to a sleek T20 tournament in Los Angeles, cricket’s Olympic story is one of rediscovery, resilience, and remarkable evolution.