ICC set to approach for the inclusion of cricket in LA 2028 Olympics and beyond

The popular sport, cricket, might be seen in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. The  International Cricket Council (ICC), the highest governing body of cricket, is going to make an official proposal to include cricket as an event in the world’s largest sporting event with the T20 edition.

The ICC confirmed in a statement that the ICC Olympic Working Group has been formed to work on the inclusion of cricket in the Olympic games. And, from there the bid will be led. ICC hopes to see cricket included in Los Angeles 2028, Brisbane 2032, and beyond.

The group will be headed by Ian Watmore, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The group will be joined by ICC Independent Director Indra Nooyi, Zimbabwe Cricket Chief Tabenga Mukulani, ICC Associate Director, and Asian Cricket Council Vice-President Mahinda Vallipuram, and US Cricket Chief Paraag Marathe.

Greg Barkley, the chairman of  the ICC said in a statement, “Our sport is united behind this bid, and we see the Olympics as a part of cricket’s long-term future.”

He added that there are over a billion fans globally and almost 90% of them wish to see cricket games played at the Olympics. So it’s clear that cricket has a strong fanbase, where 92% of the fans come from South Asia, whilst there are also 30 million fans from the USA.

He also believes that cricket will be a great addition to the Olympic games and knows the task to secure the inclusion will not be easy because a bunch of other great sports are also going to do the same.

Cricket was played only once in the Olympics. That was in Paris in 1900. Great Britain won gold and France won silver in the summer competition. But since then, the main reason for not featuring cricket in the Olympics is the game needs to spend more time. Back then it was just Test cricket.

But at present, the format of cricket has changed. The 20-over T20 format takes about three and a half hours. Now 100 ball cricket or 10 over format has also come. So, the ICC no longer sees time as a big obstacle.

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