The International Cricket Committee (ICC), the governing body for the game, has announced that it will work towards having the sport included in the 2028 Olympics, scheduled to be held in Los Angeles.
In a press statement the chair of the ICC, Greg Barkley, said ‘Our sport is united behind this bid. And we see the Olympics as a part of cricket’s long-term future. We have more than a billion fans globally and almost 90 percent of them want to see cricket at the Olympics.’
Cricket has been played at the Olympics once, in 1900, with Great Britain securing the gold and France the silver (they were the only two teams to compete).
There has been a push in recent years for cricket to be played at global sporting tournaments, and women’s cricket will be played at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (with men’s teams having appeared once at the 1998 Games in Malaysia).
The English and Indian governing bodies for the sport in their respective countries (also two of the game’s powerhouses), have, after a long period of being opposed to it, backed cricket’s inclusion at the Olympics which could go some way to seeing the game being included.