Why should Twenty20 cricket be an Olympic sport? It’s fun and fast, its played in countries (such as India) that have not traditionally excelled in the Olympics. London also has the venues (The Oval, Lords) to be able to host a cricket tournament at the same time as the main sports. In Beijing the martial art Wushu is being organised alongside the main Olympiad, so why not do the same for cricket in London in 2012?

So how can you support the idea? Sign the petition, support on Facebook, and e-mail your friends about the campaign!

• NEW – Helga Truepel MEP is now on the warpath on this one, having written a press release on the issue (EN | DE) demanding clarifications from the UK government, and she’s also written a letter (PDF file here) to the chair of the EP’s Budgets Committee, Reimer Böge, demanding action – including inviting John Healey to Budgets Committee. Oh, that would be fun!
• The Yorkshire Post has printed a new article on the topic, citing Richard Corbett’s critique of what’s going on. Corbett’s line is completely right – the Treasury is at fault, and I do wonder whether Healy was correctly advised. HMT after all thinks it’s the only reasonable economic ministry anywhere in Europe – I would beg to differ.
• Neither of the other Labour MEPs potentially implicated in this – Linda McAvan (Corbett’s colleague in the North West) or Glyn Ford (South West) have said anything about the matter. Not much of a surprise I suppose, even though McAvan is a member of the EP’s environment committee. Glyn Ford’s website doesn’t even seem to have a functioning news function.
• Graham Watson, Lib Dem MEP for the South West, has commented on the mess, as reported by the Aberavon & Neath Lib Dems.
• The Ulster Unionists also have a position on this – demanding the Northern Ireland gets its full share of the money. Well, of £31 million I suppose?
• There’s an interesting theory of why the government had to take this action in the comments on my previous post.

Let me also make this clear: whatever you think of the UK’s budget rebate (for the record: I hate it) and whether the flood hit regions should get £31 million or £110 million (for the record: I want them to get £110 million), one thing is crystal clear in all of this: the decision to reduce the payment from from £110 million to £31 million was taken by the UK Government – the Treasury – and not by any bureaucrat, politician or official in Brussels.