Cricket at LA Olympics 2028 proposal. Final announcement During Mumbai IOC session.
After months of deliberations and speculation, it can be said that Cricket is likely to be included in the proposed Sports Programme for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. After discussions in the Executive Board, the final decision will be taken and announced at the International Olympic Committee’s session in Mumbai later this week. We can report that it is now a formality.
WhileRevSportz have been reporting the story for months now, the final outcome seems to be in favour of cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics. Coming at the time when the World Cup is on in India, things couldn’t get much better for the sport. It will only increase the euphoria and add much gloss to the IOC session, which will be held in Mumbai at the same time as the India-Pakistan World Cup encounter.
While things seemed to be going to plan in May-June, they did slow down in July causing some delay. In an interaction with the media on September 28, Christoph Dubi, the IOC director, responded to a question from me by highlighting the complexity of the challenges involved.He also said that a huge amount of work had gone into it, and urged us to stay patient. Now it seems that patience has indeed paid off for every cricket fan. The Mumbai session starts this week, and a final outcome will be announced within the next seven days.
The growing importance of the Indian market for the IOC, India’s determination to mount a strong Olympic bid for 2036 and Brisbane, hosts for the 2032 Olympic Games, being a strong base for cricket all point to things going in favour of the sport.
While we speak on cricket’s possible inclusion, the question that also comes to the fore is why it has taken so long for cricket’s power-brokers to wake up to the idea of pushing for inclusion in the Olympics?
And here, credit must be given to the current administrators whose world vision is far wider than their predecessors. They realise that an Olympic medal around the neck of a Shubman Gill or a Harry Brook would indeed help the sport. If Smriti Mandhana or Tahlia McGrath go up to toss in an Olympic final, the television audience for the contest would be far more than many other sports combined. Inclusion at the Olympics will help the sport go beyond India, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa. Earlier,cricket’s outlook was insular. Now, it is not, and that’s what has changed.
As Eoin Morgan, England’s World Cup-winning captain, said, “It would be incredible to get cricket into the Olympics just because of the number of eyes that watch the Olympics. Think of the kind of exposure it will give the game. Think of the eyeballs you will get. The Olympic games will accelerate the acceptance of the sport globally, and all of a sudden there will be huge investment from governments as well. The game will spread.”