Ricky Ponting. (Photo Source: Twitter)
Since the announcement that cricket will be featured in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with both men’s and women’s T20I formats included, there has been considerable excitement and discussion within the cricketing community. This inclusion has sparked considerable buzz and speculation about the potential long-term impact on the sport.
Former Australia skipper, Ricky Ponting, recently commented on the matter, expressing that the inclusion of cricket in the 2028 LA Olympics would represent a highly advantageous development for the sport’s future. He highlighted that this breakthrough would particularly be significant given that grassroots sports in the United States have traditionally been dominated by sports like soccer, baseball, and basketball, and emphasized that cricket now had a substantial opportunity to penetrate and gain prominence at the most elementary level in the US.
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“It can only be a positive thing for our game. I’ve sat on various committees over the last 15 or 20 years, and it’s always been on the top of almost every agenda – how do we get the game back into the Olympics? And finally, it’s there. It’s only four years away. I think it also gives cricket a chance to break into the grassroots level in the US,” Ponting said on The ICC Review.
It’s about the audience that it opens up: Ponting
On the same subject, the former three-time World Cup-winner elaborated that a principal advantage of cricket’s inclusion in the Games would be the expansion of its target audience, thereby diversifying the sport into previously uncharted territories.
“The thing about the Olympic Games, it’s not [about] the host nation. It’s about the audience that it opens up. The Olympic Games being viewed by so many people all around the world, it just opens up completely different audiences to our game that’s seemingly growing on a daily basis anyway (referring to the proliferation of franchise leagues around the globe). It can only be a real positive thing for the game,” mentioned Ponting.
Ponting also expressed notable enthusiasm regarding the promising trajectory the sport was poised to follow.
“I’m really excited about where the game’s headed and the growth of different markets that we’re seeing emerge,” he added.
The sport garnered considerable attention in the United States earlier this year, when the country co-hosted the Men’s T20 World Cup alongside the West Indies.