Mumbai: Will cricket ultimately make it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics? The answer to this million-dollar question will be known at the 141st International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session, which will be held from October 15 to 17 October here, with the opening ceremony to be held on October 14 at the Jio World Centre (JWC). The IOC session will be preceded by a meeting of the IOC Executive Board (EB) on 12, 13 and 14 October, as per an announcement on the IOC official website.
“If cricket is ‘in’ for the 2028 Games, a ceremonial announcement in this regard will be made at this IOC Session in Mumbai. Cricket’s fate will be decided by then, but the decision will be ratified at this meeting,” a source tracking the developments told TOI. A month before this meeting, LA’s Organising Committee is expected to make its recommendations to the IOC. Since the IOC wants to restrict the number of participating athletes to 10,500, the ICC has proposed a six-team competition each for men and women, with three-hour-long T20 cricket being the opted format.
For around a year, there has been talk about cricket’s much-awaited return to the Olympics after 128 years-it was last played in the Paris Games in 1900, with England France being the only competing teams. The sport is watched by billions in the sub-continent, thus making it a hugely attractive option for IOC to include it in the Olympic programme-its media rights income could triple if cricket is included in the Olympics. Cricket’s case becomes stronger with Brisbane set to host the 2032 Games and India mounting a bid for the 2036 Olympics. Most crucially, the BCCI is backing the ICC’s bid for cricket to be included in the Olympics, with Board secretary Jay Shah being a member of the ICC’s Olympics working group.