Cricket at the Summer Olympics
Cricket has been a sport at the modern Summer Olympic Games. The only time it has been played was at the 1900 Summer Olympics with only a men's contest when Great Britain won the gold medal, but the possibility of it being contested at the Olympics again has recently resurfaced.
Sport in New Zealand
Cricket is the national summer sport in New Zealand, which is one of twelve countries (with the recent addition of Afghanistan and Ireland) competing in Test match cricket. The provincial competition is not nearly as widely followed as the case with rugby, but international matches are watched with interest by a large proportion of the population. This parallels the global situation in cricket, whereby the international game is more widely followed than the domestic game in all major cricketing countries. Historically, the national cricket team has not been as successful as the national rugby team. New Zealand played its first Test in 1930, but had to wait until 1956 until its first Test victory. The national team began to have more success in the 1970s and 1980s. New Zealand's most famous cricketer, the fast bowler Richard Hadlee who was the first bowler to take 400 wickets in test cricket, played in this era. Although traditionally New Zealand have had one of the strongest sides, winning the 2000 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy and reaching the 2009 final, they have never progressed the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup where they ended up six times. the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games and the semi-finals of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 until 2015. In ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, New Zealand reached final for the first time, beating South Africa in semi-finals but ultimately losing to Australia in the final. However New Zealand's Women's Team, the White Ferns have reached the Final of their World Cup four times, winning the 2000 edition of the tournament.