^^ I came across Sports Tak's (Guess it's related to Aaj Tak) Journalist commentary on it, not Vikrant but another senior journalist (don't know his name). It's a famous sports Youtube channel in India so there might be some truth to it.
- 5-6 participants because they don't want to increase the budget as hosting multiple team tournaments is expensive.
- There might be some relaxation on the 23-year age restriction rule for every team, there is a possibility of full strength team participation but it obviously depends on the individual cricket boards.
- No qualification atm and it will depend on the ICC cut off ranking system (Top-6)
- 5-6 participants because they don't want to increase the budget as hosting multiple team tournaments is expensive.
- There might be some relaxation on the 23-year age restriction rule for every team, there is a possibility of full strength team participation but it obviously depends on the individual cricket boards.
- No qualification atm and it will depend on the ICC cut off ranking system (Top-6)
The first argument is laughable. First of all, the budget comes from IOC and not from the ICC. And none of the team sports in the Olympics have 6 participants. Dividing three medals between 6 countries (and that too with direct entry for all the participants) doesn't bode well. For comparison Basketball, Field hockey, Handball, Rugby and Volleyball events had 12 teams each, while Football tournament had 16 participants. And none of these events had the direct entry system. There was an Olympic qualifier in place for each of these events.
