As per thread title it's looking like it'll get a spot in 2028. I wouldn't be a massive cricket fan. Watched in a bit when I lived in Oz and went to a few T20 matches and really enjoyed it. What are people thoughts on this?
Completely unnecessary but it might mean that India finally win an Olympics medal.
Might help promote the faster / shorter formats of the sport
Golf and cricket always kinda stood out as two of the big sports to not be part of the Olympics... with both now included what else is left?
Snooker / pool etc.
American football ...
RTE actually just put up an article
Six-team T20 competition for men's and women's cricket
Flag football? never heard of that
It’s the modern notion of ‘inclusiveness’ where opportunity is having to be given to everyone and anyone….
nobody really gives a monkeys who are the current Olympic football champions… no real cricket fan will care who is the Olympic champion….it will resonate a little more maybe with players. “ I’m an Olympic champion “or “ i competed at the Olympics “
because the World Cups, European Championships, Copa America and various other competitions basically will always trump a tournament that such little tangible affiliation and affection with football & football people.
cricket already like football has a packed schedule…. Too packed….
I'm presuming that it's really part of marketing/advertising to places like India rather than any strong desire to have cricket in the Olympics. That said, I've a teen who has just discovered cricket and is really enjoying playing and watching it, so she'll be delighted to have more opportunities to watch (and confound me with all the terminology!)
I'd assume it's a decision to get India and to a lesser extent Pakistan and Bangladesh into the Olympics more as they all but particularly India have really poor Olympics records for countries of their size.
Wiki page for US national team suggests they might have qualified automatically but didn't see any source to confirm it
Anyhow it seems the best cricket ground they have happens to be in L.A. area
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Magnus_Cricket_Complex
Cricket's return to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028 will be as a six-team T20 tournament for both genders, the International Olympic Committee has announced.
Participating teams will be able to field squads of up to 15 players after the IOC allocated quotas of 90 athletes per gender for the event.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/cvg9dl0vnp7o
6 teams seems unnecessarily low for a T20 competition.
I guess it's part of the overall cap on the number of athletes. 6 squads of 15 = 90 athletes (+ coaches) to be fed and housed. Times 2 for the female competition. That extra 180 athletes is in the context of the quest to keep the overall total of ~10,500 athletes (the Paris figure). Obviously some sports/events are being dropped but other team sports are being added (fecking flag American football !)
A T20 competition could obviously be ran off in 12 days with many more teams but I'd say sports are fighting tooth and nail in the background re the cap. I could envisage cricket getting an 8 country competition in Brisbane where the sport is plausibly a high ticket/revenue generator.
Edit. Be interesting to see how the places are allocated. Host is one presumably. Then geographical based on rankings perhaps. 1 Asia, 1 Europe, 1 Oceania, 1 Africa. Lets say India, UK/Eng, Australia, SA. Leaves a lot of worthy contenders for the last slot which might be some sort of qualification tournament.
They are bringing in cricket after a very long time and I think they can start with 6 teams and maybe next time, we see two teams from each continent as the game is still at its early stages and developing in many parts of the world.
