page_title: Cricket at the 1900 Summer Olympics
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Cricket at the 1900 Summer Olympics / Background
context_page_description: A cricket tournament, played as part of the 1900 Summer Olympics, took place on 19–20 August at the Vélodrome de Vincennes. The only match of the tournament was played between teams representing Great Britain and France, and was won by 158 runs by Great Britain.
  Originally, teams representing Belgium, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands were scheduled to compete in the tournament. Belgium and the Netherlands pulled out of the competition, leaving Great Britain to play France. Neither team was nationally selected. The British side was a touring club, the Devon and Somerset Wanderers, while the French team, the French Athletic Club Union, comprised mainly British expatriates living in Paris.
  The two-day game commenced on 19 August 1900. Great Britain batted first and scored 117, and bowled France out for 78. Great Britain then scored 145 for 5 in their second innings, setting the hosts a target of 185. The tourists bowled out France for 26 to win the match by 158 runs, a significant margin, but with only five minutes of the match remaining. The Great Britain team was awarded silver medals and the French team bronze medals, together with miniature statues of the Eiffel Tower.
context_section_description: Cricket had been scheduled as an event at the first modern Olympics, the 1896 Summer Olympics, being listed in the original programme for the Athens Games.  Due to an insufficient number of entries, the event was cancelled.  Four years later, at the Paris Games, there was also a shortage of entries.  Belgium and the Netherlands, who for a time had been considered as possibilities to co-host the Olympics with France, withdrew from the cricket tournament when their co-hosting bids fell through.  Their withdrawal left only Great Britain and the host nation, France.
  The slightly haphazard nature of the cricket tournament was mirrored throughout the rest of the 1900 Olympics. Events took place throughout a six-month period from May through until October, and like the Games themselves, were often considered part of the Exposition Universelle, a world's fair held in Paris from 15 April until 12 November 1900.
caption: Poster of the only Olympic cricket match
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