Patiala, 10 April (Shahi)
Cricket will make its Olympic return at the LA 2028 Games with six-team tournaments in both the men’s and women’s events, it was officially announced on Wednesday. Each gender has been allocated 90 athlete quotas, enabling every team to field a 15-member squad in the fast-paced T20 format.
Absent from the Olympics for over 120 years, cricket last appeared at Paris 1900 in a one-off, two-day match between Great Britain and France—later deemed an unofficial Test. Its reintroduction at LA 2028 marks a historic moment for the sport, which will now embrace the globally popular T20 structure.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) oversees 12 ‘full member’ nations—Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and Zimbabwe—alongside 94 ‘associate members.’ India (men) and New Zealand (women) currently hold the T20 world titles, setting the stage for a competitive Olympic showdown.
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The event program and athlete quotas for LA 2028 were ratified by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Executive Board on Wednesday. Cricket joins four other new sports—baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes), and squash—approved for inclusion two years ago.
Details of the cricket venues and match schedules for LA 2028 remain under wraps, with final announcements expected closer to the Games.
Cricket’s Olympic debut follows its growing presence in multi-sport events. A men’s tournament featured at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, while women’s cricket debuted at Birmingham 2022. The T20 format has also been a staple at the Asian Games in 2010, 2014, and 2023, with 14 men’s teams and nine women’s teams competing at Hangzhou 2023, compared to eight teams at Birmingham 2022.
With a compact six-team field, the LA 2028 Olympic cricket tournaments promise high-octane action, spotlighting the sport’s resurgence on the global stage.
