Cricket is on course for a historic return to the Olympic Games! Come 2028, our Los Angeles will welcome the world to an exciting six-team, men’s and women’s T20, short-form vibe. To that end, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has distributed 90 athlete quotas per gender. This means that each team can bring squads of up to 15 players to compete. This decision has returned cricket to the Olympics for the first time since 1900. At the time, Great Britain had just won a historic triumph against France in a one-off final in Paris.
The announcement follows months of closed-door conversations among key players. IOC President Kirsty Coventry pictured meeting ICC Chairman Jay Shah during last month’s ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai. They strategized on how to better integrate cricket and its ability to tap into a more diverse audience. The IOC has a vested interest in using cricket’s popularity, especially in cricket-mad India, as a way of boosting the Olympics’ overall appeal. India are the reigning T20 World Cup champions. With the next 2024 World Cup heavily co-hosted by the United States, India offers the biggest lure to fans and thus a golden commercial opportunity for the IOC and its partners.
As cricket gears up for its Olympic debut in over a century, preliminary discussions have begun regarding the formation of a Team Great Britain side. The England and Wales Cricket Board has opened talks with Cricket Scotland since the events in Afghanistan. They are hungry to work together and put the UK on the map in the Olympics.
Excitement is building for cricket’s return! So far, the IOC has not announced the qualification procedure for teams wishing to participate in Los Angeles. The excitement building towards this event underlines cricket’s emerging global power and its capability to bring countries together in peace through sport.
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