IOC Announces Cricket for LA 28: Cricket has officially made its comeback to the Olympics for over a century, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially confirming its inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 (LA28) Olympic Games. Men’s and women’s T20 cricket competitions will each see six teams compete, a significant milestone in the sport’s international journey.
IOC Announces Cricket with Six-Team Format for LA28 Cricket Confirmed
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As part of LA28’s official Olympic program, the IOC includes cricket in a six-team competition in men’s and women’s events. Each of the teams will comprise 15 players, creating a total of 90 athletes in each gender category.
The arrangement is consistent with the overall strategy for all team sports at LA28, under which limited team positions are being introduced in order to control athlete quotas overall.
Qualification Criteria Not Yet Finalized
While the format has been confirmed, the qualification criteria for cricket at the 2028 Olympics have not yet been officially announced. The International Cricket Council (ICC) had earlier proposed that teams be selected based on the ICC T20I rankings at a specified cut-off date, but a final decision is expected later in 2025.
USA’s Role as Host Nation and Potential Direct Qualification
Among the decisions pending confirmation is whether the host country USA would automatically qualify for both the men’s and women’s tournaments. If so, this would decrease the number of available qualification positions to five per division.
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This is a special problem for cricket, as the USA is not currently an ICC Full Member, which could influence their automatic entry into the tournament.
West Indies Dilemma: Who Will Represent the Caribbean?
Another question is how representation from the West Indies will be handled. Since the Olympic competition operates on a national basis, and Caribbean islands participate individually in the Olympics (similar to how they participated in the Commonwealth Games), it is not apparent who the representative out of the West Indies will be.
At the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Barbados represented West Indies for women’s cricket after coming out on top in the regional Twenty20 Blaze tournament, and this system can be replicated for LA28.
Historic Return After 1900 Paris Appearance
The addition of cricket to LA28 is its first Olympic appearance since 1900 when it was featured briefly in Paris. The reintroduction of the sport was given the green light at the IOC session in Mumbai in October 2023, and it is one of five new sports that were added to the Olympic program.
In explaining at the time, IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell emphasized balancing global competitiveness and regional representation in the final team choices.
The assurance that the IOC will bring cricket to the 2028 LA Olympics has set the cricketing world on fire. With a six-team tournament, subject to qualification requirements, and uncertainty regarding team representation, the hype for the Olympic cricket tournament will be as enticing as the competition itself.
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