IOC recommends inclusion of T20 cricket and four other sports in 2028 Olympics

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board on Friday officially recommended the inclusion of Baseball/Softball, Cricket (T20), Flag Football, Lacrosse (sixes), and Squash in the 2028 Olympic which will be hosted by Los Angeles, United States of America.

The official announcement on the inclusion of these five sports is yet to be announced. The IOC posted the latest development regarding the inclusion of these five sports on X which read, "Following a review by the Olympic Programme Commission, the IOC Executive Board puts the @LA28 Organising Committee's additional sports proposal to the IOC Session. Baseball/softball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (sixes), and squash are the 5 sports submitted."

Following a review by the Olympic Programme Commission, the IOC Executive Board puts the @LA28 Organising Committee's additional sports proposal to the IOC Session.

Baseball/softball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (sixes), and squash are the 5 sports submitted. pic.twitter.com/pL6IOn87Jj

— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) October 13, 2023

Cricket made its sole appearance at the 1900 Paris Olympics in which Great Britain defeated France in the final.

IOC President Thomas Bach spoke about the inclusion of Cricket in the 2028 Olympics and said that the IOC would work with the ICC to decide on the number of participating teams.

"Cricket is getting more popularity all over the world and presently Cricket World Cup is being held in India Successfully. So we look forward for cricket players to participate in 2028 Olympics. Indian origin people play a lot of cricket and recently we organised a cricket tournament in Dallas too. Los Angeles had an opportunity for the same and they included it in the events " said Thomas Bach.

"We will work with the ICC as we do with all sports. We will not be working with individual cricket authorities of any nation. With co-operation from the ICC we will see how we can make Cricket more popular. We are still in the proposal mode, the number of teams participating is still not clear yet." he added.

The IOC president said the addition of Cricket was an opportunity for the Olympic fraternity to engage with Cricketers.

"This is a win-win situation where the Olympics will give Cricket a global presence. And for the Olympics, it will be an opportunity to engage with the cricketers. In India we saw that Olympic sport is getting popular and Cricket is already the most popular sport.

Earlier this week, the organisers of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics recommended the inclusion of cricket at the Games after 128 years of wait.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) released an official statement to announce the inclusion of cricket which read, "After a two-year process, in which ICC worked closely with LA28, the list of sports to be added in LA included cricket, which will now be put forward for approval to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IOC President also spoke on the decision to ban the Russian Olympic Committee from the Paris Olympics saying that Russian athletes would not be penalised.

"There is no deadline for Russia. We have decided that we will keep a watch on the situation in future. We will allow individual players with Russian passports. This means that they can participate on their own and there will be no participation of Russia as a country. These will be neutral individual participations. We will not punish athletes for something done by their country's govt. This applies to all the players" Thomas Bach said. (ANI)