The International Cricket Committee has confirmed that it will campaign for the inclusion of the sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, launching their effort in traditional cricket fashion with the formation of a committee, the ICC Olympic Working Group.
“Our sport is united behind this bid, and we see the Olympics as a part of cricket’s long-term future,” the ICC chairman, Greg Barclay, said. “We know it won’t be easy to secure our inclusion as there are so many other great sports out there wanting to do the same, but we feel now is the time to put our best foot forward and show what a great partnership cricket and the Olympics are.”
The ICC’s bid to end what will by then have been a 128-year absence from Olympic schedules will include multiple demonstrations of cricket’s suitability for multi-sport events: it will return to the Commonwealth Games schedule with a women’s Twenty20 competition in Birmingham in 2022, to the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China the following month, and there are plans for it to be included in the 2023 Africa Games in Ghana.
The England and Wales Cricket Board’s chairman, Ian Watmore – who will also chair the ICC’s Olympic Working Group – has previously promised that the ECB will “enthusiastically support” efforts to add cricket to the Olympics, while India’s BCCI gave their approval at their AGM last December. Cricket Australia are also supportive, having already promised to “work closely with the Queensland…
