New Delhi: Cricket will feature six teams battling for top honours when the sport returns to the Olympics at the 2028 Los Angeles Games after a gap of 128 years.
This was confirmed by the organisers on Wednesday.
Cricket last featured at the Olympics in the 1900 edition of the Games in Paris, where a one-off, two-day match between Great Britain and France was held, which is now recognised as an unofficial Test.
At LA 2028, cricket will be played in the T20 format, with six teams competing in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
Every team will be able to name a 15-member squad as a total of 90 athlete quotas have been allocated for each gender.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) consists of 12 full members in Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Another 94 countries form the associate members group.
Qualification criteria for the 2028 Games are yet to be confirmed for the cricket tournament but USA are likely to earn a direct spot at the quadrennial extravaganza as host nation, meaning only five teams will be allowed to make the cut through the qualification process. It is expected that top five teams in the ICC rankings within a certain cut-off date will qualify apart from the United States of America.
Cricket is one of five new sports which will feature at the next Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved cricket’s inclusion for LA28 in 2023, along with baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash.
Meanwhile, The Executive Board (EB) of the IOC on Wednesday approved the event program and athlete quotas for the LA Games, adding 22 more medal events as compared to Paris 2024.
The IOC approved a record 351 medal events for the LA28 program and the athlete quota remains at 10,500, with an extra 698 quota places allocated for the five additional sports — baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash.
For the first time in history, all team sports will have at least the same number of women’s teams as men’s.
Among other sports, boxing will achieve full gender parity with the addition of a seventh women’s weight category, same as the men’s.(PTI)
