Updated: 7 August 2022
Cricket In Olympics. Olympic games are considered the event that any sports person dreams of playing in. Summer Olympics games, also known as the games of the Olympiad, take place every 4 years. The inaugural summer Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and the recent one was organised in Japan in 2021.
The 34th edition of the Summer Olympics, also known as LA28, will be scheduled in Los Angels between July 14th– July 30th.
According to the reports published by ESPN Cricinfo, the International Olympic Committee has shortlisted cricket among the 9 sports to be included in the summer Olympics 2028. Apart from this, we will see 28 games whose names have already been disclosed in December last year.
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The International Olympic Committee has shortlisted baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, break dancing, karate, kickboxing, squash, and motorsport, along with cricket, as a probable addition to the sports event.
The ICC has been told to give a presentation regarding how the addition of cricket can benefit the Olympics. They will be doing a formal presentation towards the end of August this year. The final decision will be taken by the International Olympic Committee in June 2023.
The LA28 cannot be forced to include additional sports, but they are considering all the available options to meet the expected cap of 10,500 athletes at the Olympics event. Also, the committee believes that adding a new sport will mean new vibes and, eventually, new attractions.
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Cricket has only featured once, and that was at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games. Great Britain and France were the two countries that participated in the 1900 games. In the ongoing commonwealth games in England, we have seen for the first time that cricket is included.
Women’s cricket teams from 8 countries are involved in it. This has made IOC think along the lines of the Commonwealth games. How they make it happen is a big debate. The tsunami of cricket leagues across the globe and the continuous increase in its popularity is being closely watched by the International Olympic committee.
The experts believe adding a sport like cricket in the Olympics will make it more glamorous. Cricket is one of the richest sporting games globally, and its financial benefits can be an added advantage. The IOC is always known to find ways to add a new dimension to the Olympics, and cricket here can play a vital role.
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“Being in multi-sport games, whether it is the Commonwealth Games or the Asian Games or the African Games, putting cricket into these multi-sport events is good for the growth of our game,” ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice told reporters a week ago. We feel it’s high time cricket is given a place in the world’s biggest sporting event to add more value.
