The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board on Friday officially recommended the inclusion of baseball/softball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (sixes), and squash in the 2028 Olympics, which will be hosted by Los Angeles, United States of America.
The official announcement on the inclusion of these five sports is yet to be announced. The IOC posted the latest development regarding the inclusion of these five sports on X, which read, “Following a review by the Olympic Programme Commission, the IOC Executive Board puts the @LA28 Organising Committee’s additional sports proposal to the IOC Session. Baseball/softball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (sixes), and squash are the 5 sports submitted.”
Cricket made its sole appearance at the 1900 Paris Olympics, in which Great Britain defeated France in the final. IOC President Thomas Bach spoke about the inclusion of cricket in the 2028 Olympics and said that the IOC would work with the ICC to decide on the number of participating teams. “Cricket is getting more popularity all over the world, and presently, the Cricket World Cup is being held in India successfully. So we look forward to cricket players to participate in 2028 Olympics. Indian-origin people play a lot of cricket, and recently we organised a cricket tournament in Dallas too. Los Angeles had an opportunity for the same, and they included it in the events,” said Thomas Bach. “We will work with the ICC as we do with all sports. We will not be working with the individual cricket authorities of any nation. With co-operation from the ICC, we will see how we can make cricket more popular. We are still in proposal mode; the number of teams participating is still not clear yet,” he added. The IOC president said the addition of cricket was an opportunity for the Olympic fraternity to engage with cricketers.