When the Games executives meet in Mumbai this week to complete the Los Angeles 2028 programme, cricket’s lengthy exile from the Olympics may finally come to an end.
Cricket Olympics return at Los Angeles: Cricket was one of five additional sports that the Los Angeles Olympics organisers formally sought for inclusion on Monday. Twenty-eight sports are already confirmed on the calendar.
The smallest format of international cricket, the Twenty20 format, is what the International Cricket Council is proposing.
Greg Barclay, the chairman of the ICC, expressed satisfaction with the proposal by LA28 to include cricket in the Olympics.
Even if this isn’t the final decision, it’s a big step towards cricket’s return to the Olympics after more than a century.
Cricket’s inclusion would mark the first time since 1900 when a British squad defeated a French side in Paris.
Since then, cricket has remained excluded from the Olympic festivities, partly because the sport itself had little interest in the competition.
However, the ICC has made it plain recently that it wants to take part in the world championship, which may give the sport a boost and enable it to tap into new markets.
In 2021, Barclay stated, “Our sport is unite behind this bid, and we see the Olympics as a part of cricket’s long-term future.”
Nearly 90% of our more than a billion fans around the world want to see cricket at the Olympics.
The highest echelons of the Olympic movement have endorsed the game.
In 2011, the late Jacques Rogge, the head of the ICC, said: “We would welcome such application. Cricket is a significant, well-liked sport with strong television appeal.
The addition of cricket, which was a competition at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year, has also received support from the current president, Thomas Bach.
Before a full IOC session from October 15 to October 17, which would essentially rubber stamp the decision, the IOC executive board is convening this week in Mumbai.
There is no better city for Cricket to argue its case than New York.
One of the sports hotbeds, India, is hosting the men’s 50-over World Cup, where the IOC session is taking place.
Cricket’s various formats and unique regulations have piques interest in regions of the world where it is not commonly played for a long time.
The worldwide language of cold, hard currency, however, is simpler to comprehend.
The justifications that Olympic cricket would conflict with the English season or be an excessively drawn-out affair seem more archaic.
Today’s global cricket calendar is a jumble of franchise cricket, domestic cricket, and international cricket, with many formats vying for viewers’ attention.
Traditional five-day Test cricket, long regarded as the apex of the game, is no longer in vogue because to the enormously successful T20 Indian Premier League, which has inspired numerous such franchise leagues worldwide.
Thanks to throngs of spectators and rich television agreements in a country where the sport is practically a religion, the IPL, which features international superstars, has assisted India in becoming the undisputed economic powerhouse of cricket.
Financially speaking, bringing cricket to the Olympic programming is a no-brainer.
It would take advantage of the vast South Asian market and draw spectators from nations like Pakistan and India that haven’t historically been strong in the main Olympic sports.
Additionally, it might enable cricket to obtain millions of dollars in public and corporate financing presently set aside for Olympic sports.
In addition to helping established nations like South Africa who are struggling financially, this would help cricket’s up-and-coming nations.