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Cricket back in Olympics for first time since 1900 Paris Games

The 2028 Olympics proposal is for a six-team Twenty20 cricket tournament for men and women

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India's Kuldeep Yadav celebrates the wicket of Pakistan's Saud Shakeel during the ICC World Cup match in Ahmedabad on Saturday. — AP

By Reuters

Published: Mon 16 Oct 2023, 1:39 PM

Five sports, including cricket and flag football, were included in the 2028 Los Angeles Games on Monday after gaining the approval of the International Olympic Committee.

Lacrosse, squash and baseball-softball had also been proposed by LA Games organisers for inclusion and received approval at an IOC meeting in Mumbai.

Each host city, under IOC rules, can request the inclusion of several sports for their edition of the Games.

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The five sports had already been given the nod from the powerful IOC Executive Board last week, with the session on Monday approving its recommendation.

Cricket, which enjoys a massive following in India and has a fast growing global audience, returns to the Games after more than a century, having appeared once at the 1900 Olympics.

The LA Games proposal is for a six-team Twenty20 cricket tournament for men and women. T20 is a short format of the game.

The IOC hopes cricket's inclusion will activate and engage a large, new Olympic audience, especially among Asian fans of the sport.

The annual Indian Premier League cricket tournament, with an estimated brand value of $8.4 billion, is one of the richest leagues in the world across sports and continues to attract the world's top players and coaches to India.

The tournament is played in the same T20 format that the game will feature in during the LA 2028 games.

While all five sports' inclusion is only for one edition of the Games, they are banking on the boost provided by Olympic participation to spur growth as they look to remain an attractive Olympic product going into the next four-year cycle.

Flag football is a non-contact format of American football played by teams of five. American football last featured as a demonstration sport in 1932 LA Games.

Baseball has featured in several previous Games. It was added to the 2020 Tokyo program after being left off in 2012 and 2016, but it will not be a part of the Paris Games.

Softball, the female counterpart to baseball, has appeared at five previous editions of the Summer Games and was also left off the Paris agenda.

Lacrosse twice appeared as a medal sport at the Olympics, in 1904 and 1908.

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Reuters

Published: Mon 16 Oct 2023, 1:39 PM

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