With the growing popularity of the game, cricket is still surprisingly out of the Olympic Games. This comes as a surprise as lesser-known games are part of the Olympics, and cricket was once again ignored in the recently concluded games.

With T20 Format Cricket expected to feature in the 2028 Olympics, this will give all cricket fans a huge sigh of relief.

Ricky Ponting, the Australian legend, explains that this opens up completely different audiences to our game. Ponting agrees that the inclusion of Cricket at the Olympics will benefit the game immensely, helping to spread the game in non-cricketing nations, which will truly make it a global sport. The return of cricket in the Olympics is expected four years from now in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

“It can only be a positive thing for our game. I’ve sat on various committees over the last 15 or 20 years, and it’s always been on the top of almost every agenda—how do we get the game back into the Olympics? And finally, it’s there,” Ponting said on The ICC Review. “It’s only four years away. I think it also gives cricket a chance to break into the grassroots level in the US.”

Cricket fans will know that Cricket was part of the 1900 Olympics, but it was not well received as only two teams participated—Great Britain and France. Great Britain won gold. But now, after 128 years, with a short and fast-moving format introduced in the game—T20, it is time for the cricketing world to be brought into the Olympics fold, which will automatically attract many more countries into the game.

Ricky Ponting states that the sport enjoys immense popularity in countries like India, England, and Australia but is yet to make major inroads in some other parts of the world.

“The thing about the Olympic Games, it’s not [about] the host nation. It’s about the audience that it opens up,” Ponting said. “The Olympic Games being viewed by so many people all around the world, it just opens up completely different audiences to our game that’s seemingly growing on a daily basis anyway. It can only be a real positive thing for the game.”

Cricket being a technical game requires a lot of infrastructural specificity for the pitch and outfield to be game-ready. This poses a challenge in non-cricket playing nations. An experiment was made successfully in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, with some of the initial matches being played in the United States.

Ponting said infrastructure and qualification pathways would still need to be appropriately figured out, but with its inclusion, the game is moving in the right direction overall.

“Facilities and infrastructure and those things are going to be key, and how many [participating] teams they actually decide on. I think it’s only six or seven teams that they’re talking about, so qualification is going to be at a premium—how you actually qualify to get into the Olympic Games.

So all those are things to think about, [but] I’m really excited about where the game’s headed and the growth of different markets that we’re seeing emerge.”

As expected, cricket for the Los Angeles Olympics 2028 will be played in the newest format of the game—The T20 Format. Both the Men’s and Women’s teams are to feature in the games.

Alongside baseball-softball, flag football, lacrosse, and squash, cricket was one of the five additional sports proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee for inclusion at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Support from BCCI

In 2020, the BCCI in its Annual General Meeting decided to back the ICC’s bid for the inclusion of T20 cricket in 2028 after getting some clarifications from the International Olympic Committee.

Overjoyed Indian Celebrities Welcome Inclusion

In India, the game of cricket is the most popular sport played and watched. It is India’s favourite pastime.

While India participates in other Olympic Sports, they are way behind in quality and competitiveness as compared to other countries. These sports are not very popular in India, and hence India falls short on the medals table.

This can change with Cricket in the Olympics, as India is the reigning T20 World Champions of 2024. Cricket is considered a religion in India, and the return of the sport in the Olympics was heartily welcomed by fans, celebrated athletes, and Bollywood superstars.

“It’s great tidings for India as we have a great cricket team and some superb up-and-coming players with a lot of potential,” Indian javelin ace Neeraj Chopra said. “This will also benefit cricket as an entry into the Olympics will only further its worldwide appeal.

“The sport’s inclusion at LA28 will be an opportunity for cricket to extend its global footprint and encourage more countries to take up the sport seriously,” Chopra added.

Neeraj Chopra is one of the most celebrated Indian Athlete in Olympics with a Gold and a Silver in Javelin.