Six teams will be in contention to win the coveted gold medal when cricket finally makes its much-awaited return to the Olympics in 2028.
Cricket is one of the five new sports to feature at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The IOC approved cricket’s inclusion for LA28 in 2023, along with baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes), and squash.
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IOC gives the Green Flag
The IOC, on Wednesday (April 9), confirmed that cricket at the LA 2028 Olympic Games will feature six teams each in the men’s and women’s tournaments.
The matches will be played in the T20 format. A total of 90 athlete quotas have been allocated for each gender, allowing every team to name a 15-member squad.
Qualification Criteria explained
The qualification criteria to determine the six participating teams for the 2028 Games are yet to be confirmed.
At present, there are 12 Full-Member Nations under the International Cricket Council (ICC) with another 90-plus countries playing T20 as Associate Members.
The USA is likely to earn a direct spot at the Games, which means only five other teams will make the cut for the Games, three years later. The venues are yet to be confirmed, while the schedule will be finalised closer to the Games.
Cricket at the Summer Olympics:
While the cricketing world is eagerly waiting for the upcoming 2028 LA Olympics, it will not be the first time that the game has been played in the Games. More than 100 years ago, cricket made its first appearance at the Games in 1900 Paris Olympics.
Only two teams – Great Britain and France – had competed that year. Cricket has not featured in the Olympics since then and will finally make its return to the Games in 2028.
However, the game has appeared at several other multi-sport events in recent years. In the 1998 Commonwealth Games, the men’s cricket tournament was held while the women’s game made its CWG debut at Birmingham 2022. Both men’s and women’s cricket tournaments were also part of the Asian Games in 2010, 2014, and 2023.