The Cricket at LA28 Olympics will be featuring six teams each in both Men’s and women’s tournaments after the sport has been absent from the Olympics for 128 years after being featured at Paris 1900.
Cricket will be played in the fast-paced T20 format in the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, with six teams competing in both Men’s and women’s tournaments. A total of 90 athlete quotas have been allocated for each gender, allowing every team to name a 15-member squad.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) consists of 12 ‘full members’ – Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe. Another 94 countries represent ‘associate members.’
However, there is no clarity yet on the qualification criteria for the Olympic games. If USA, gets direct qualification, that would have only five spots left. The ICC had suggest the six teams will be shortlisted based on the T20I rankings at a cut-off date.
The final call on qualification while not taken yet, is expected to be made this year. It also remains uncertain who will represent the West Indies, since the islands in the Caribbean participate as separate countries at Olympic Games.
At Birmingham 2022, eight teams participated while at the Hangzhou Asian Games, 14 teams competed in the men’s event while nine played the women’s competition.
Both Men’s and women’s cricket tournaments, played in the popular T20 format, were part of the Asian Games in 2010, 2014 and 2023.
Kit McConnell, the IOC’s sports director said, “Normally, the host country is one of the teams in the team sports, and then we look at a balance of global strength and regional representation, and try and find that balance within the available quota as well.”
ICC chairman Jay Shah is already working on a long term strategy to ensure cricket’s presence in future Olympic Games, including Brisbane 2032. The former BCCI secretary played a key role in the campaign to bring cricket to the Oylmpic stage in 2028.
