LA28 Recommends Cricket For Inclusion in Los Angeles Olympics, Confirms ICC

The International Cricket Council has confirmed that the organisers of the LA Olympics have recommended the inclusion of cricket at the 2028 games. It was a long time back in the 1900 Olympics when cricket was played. England and France men’s teams played a single match in Paris where the former emerged victorious.

The speculations were rife about cricket’s inclusion at the LA Olympics and the ICC announcement has confirmed that there are talks regarding it and we might see cricket at the Olympics hopefully.

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“The International Cricket Council (ICC) is delighted at the decision of the organisers of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics to recommend cricket for inclusion at the Games,” the ICC said in a statement.

“After a two-year process, in which the ICC worked closely with LA28, the list of sports to be added in LA included cricket, which will now be put forward for approval to the IOC,” it further read.

ICC Chairman Greg Barclay said: “We are delighted that LA28 have recommended cricket for inclusion in the Olympics.

“Whilst this is not the final decision, it is a very significant landmark towards seeing cricket at the Olympics for the first time in more than a century.

“I’d like to thank LA28 for their support during the new sport evaluation process over last two years and we look forward to the final decision being taken at the IOC Session, in India, during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup next week.”

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics will be confirmed at the 141st International Olympic Committee session that gets underway in Mumbai on October 15.

The newspaper also reported that lacrosse and squash could be proposed as additional sports for the 2028 Summer Games. Cricket has been played in the Olympics only once before, in Paris in 1900, when England and France battled for the gold medal.

Men’s and women’s T20 competitions will be played in the 2028 edition, opening up a lucrative Asian sub-continent market for the IOC.

Cricket’s entry into the Olympics will also go a long way in widening the reach of the sport.

India is the game’s biggest market and value of the IOC broadcast deal in the country go up substantially following its inclusion in the 2028 edition.