Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: Cricket and squash, the two games in which India can expect medals, will be among five sports to be included in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Five sports, including cricket and squash, were included in the 2028 Los Angeles on Monday after gaining the approval of the International Olympic Committee.
For cricket, it will be a return in Olympics after over 125 years and likely to be played in the latest format of T20 cricket. Cricket was last played at the Olympics in its second edition in 1900. One match was played where England beat France for the gold medal. The T20 format, so successful at the Asian Games, is most likely to be used at the Olympics (men and women).
International Olympics Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, speaking after the second day of an executive board meeting in Mumbai on October 13 had said officials had accepted a proposal by LA organisers for Twenty20 cricket to be included as one of five new sports together with baseball/softball, flag football (non-contact American football), squash and lacrosse.
But the final selection was made on Monday when the IOC session in Mumbai voted in favour of cricket and four other sports permitting the organisers of the Los Angeles Olympics for inclusion in the games in 2028. Each host city, under IOC rules, can request the inclusion of several sports for their edition of the Games.
The LA Games proposal is for a six-team Twenty20 cricket tournament for men and women. T20 is a short format of the game. The IOC hopes cricket’s inclusion will activate and engage a large, new Olympic audience, especially among Asian fans of the sport.
Though the Indian team is likely to undergo a sea-change by the time it is played in the Olympics with several of the current senior players might retire by then, Indian players playing in the IPL have gained much advantage in T20 cricket. It is, however, still not clear how will be the selection of the six teams for participating in the Olympics.
The inclusion in the Olympics would mean that cricket which earlier was played only in a handful of countries, particularly the commonwealth countries, is now going global. Modern players from Steve Smith and Trent Boult to Ravichandran Ashwin and Shubhman Gill have said they are all for it. An Olympic gold is the most coveted honour in international sport even if world championships are sometimes seen to be on a plane of their own.
But for long the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was opposed to Olympics participation for a variety of reasons, as were the players themselves. The International Cricket Council (ICC) was not too keen either, seeing the quadrennial event cutting into their already crowded calendar.
The BCCI was unhappy to be dealing with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), and coming under its remit which included following the rules under which the national sports federations function. Cricket’s governing body sees itself as unique and independent raising its own funds without depending on the government as the case with most other sports bodies. The BCCI had also made it clear that the cricket team would participate only if there was no interference from the IOA.
A few months ago, the BCCI secretary Jay Shah had said, “Once cricket is added in the Olympics, India will be participating,” adding, “The BCCI and the ICC are on the same page as far as participation in the Olympics is concerned.” This is good news for the globalisation of a sport too few countries play at the highest level.
It will have commercial advantages also. The International Olympic Committee is fully aware of the draw cricket has for the Asian countries, especially in the subcontinent. Its motivation is as much sporting as commercial. It has been estimated that the current Olympic broadcast rights in India worth around $20 million (for the Paris Olympics in 2024) would rise to ten times that figure with cricket added.
For lesser cricketing countries whose coffers aren’t overflowing, the Olympics will come as a boon because of the support they would receive from their governments, and from the IOC itself.