The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board on Friday, approved the inclusion of cricket in the programme at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The board has now forwarded the proposal to the IOC session which will be held in Mumbai on Monday. This will be the final step towards the inclusion of the sport.
Earlier, the LA28 organising committee formally proposed to the IOC for the inclusion of cricket in the Los Angeles Games in 2028. This was the first step, followed by the Executive Board approving the proposal. Cricket will be played in the T20Format at the games. Along with cricket, four other sports, which are baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash have also been proposed to be included by the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (LA28).
“These additional sports were proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee, for its edition of the Games only, and were reviewed by the Olympic Programme Commission (OPC) before being put forward to the EB,” an IOC statement.
Cricket presents an invaluable opportunity to engage with new countries and communities: IOC
Cricket was played in the Paris 1900 Olympics, featuring a one-off Gold Medal match between England and France. It will return to the Olympic Games after 128 years. The International Olympic Committee expressed that the sport presents an opportunity to engage with new countries and communities.
“Part of the Olympic Games programme at Paris 1900, cricket has more than 2.5 billion fans worldwide and represents an invaluable opportunity to engage with new countries and communities, including the growing Indian community in the US. Cricket brings a vast social media following, the men’s 2024 Cricket T20 WC will be hosted in the USA, and a new major professional league, Major League Cricket, was recently launched in the USA. T20 – with a men’s and a women’s tournament – is the format that would be played at LA28,” the statement added.
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