-
KL Rahul. Image LA28.org
Gargi Raut
As the Olympics prepares for the inclusion of Cricket in the Los Angeles 2028 games, Olympics authorities have a responsibility of warming up the larger audience to cricket. In an article explaining the shortest format of the game, a picture of KL Rahul was used, a player who is not in the scheme of things for T20Is for the Indian Team. While the explanation given, see screenshot, seeks to make the game understandable for a global audience, the use of the picture is interesting. It also tells us something about the pecking order in Indian cricket. One wonders why it isn’t Gill or Pant or Jaiswal and why it is KL Rahul. The website says clearly that the format to be used is the T20 one which is a fast paced version. Rahul, for a while now, has not been part of the Indian team in the format. In fact, he wasn’t even a part of the Indian T20 World Cup winning Indian team in the US and the Caribbean in 2024.
Just a month earlier LA28 organisers announced the venue of the competition and it can be surmised that Cricket’s inclusion will substantially add to LA28’s brand value in India.
Speaking to Revsportz a while back Niccolo Campriani, Director of LA28, had alluded to this.
“This estimated number of 2.5 billion cricket fans worldwide is going to be a game-changer for the LA28 games, but also for the whole Olympic movement” is what he had said.
For broadcast, for example, the thought of Shubman Gill or Suryakumar Yadav winning a gold medal and also Smriti Mandhana or Harmanpreet Kaur would add much to the attraction of the Olympics. In fact, one would have also wanted to see a picture of either Kaur or Mandhana with a male cricketer on the website.