Los Angeles Olympics 2028 likely to feature T20 Cricket

Los Angeles Olympics 2028 is ‘very likely’ to mark the return of Cricket as a five-team T20 competition is under consideration for the biggest sporting event, British daily newspaper The Times reported on Tuesday.

In a bid to open up a potentially lucrative commercial market in the Asian subcontinent, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is deliberate to include men’s and women’s Twenty20 competitions – with gold medals at stake – in the Los Angeles Olympics 2028.

Given cricket’s widespread popularity in countries like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, IOC President Thomas Bach is reportedly a huge supporter of its inclusion in the Olympics.

The three nations are not dominant forces in the Olympic games but cricket’s inclusion will attract massive viewership of the tournament in 2028.

The current proposal calls for a men’s and women’s competition with five teams each, with qualifying based on the world rankings of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Los Angeles Olympics 2028 will be the first to feature cricket since a one-off gold medal match in the 1900 Games in Paris.

Notably, cricket is one of the nine shortlisted sports for the upcoming Los Angeles Olympics 2028, besides baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, break dancing, karate, kickboxing, squash and motorsport.

However, a massive roadblock still lies in cricket’s Olympic return after 128 years as the organizers of the game have subjected the move to the addition of Flag Football – a non-contact version of American football.

It is worth mentioning here that T20 cricket has had somewhat of a test run at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham with an eight-team women’s tournament.

Australia claimed the gold medal in the competition with a dominant nine-run victory over India. Whereas, New Zealand won bronze after thrashing England by eight wickets.