The ICC is not losing hope of cricket among the “extra sports” to be played at the 2028 Los Angeles Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) began the process of identifying key sports for the grand sporting spectacle.
The IOC on Thursday named 28 sports, along with skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing, in the “preliminary schedule” for the 2028 Olympics.
Boxing, weightlifting and modern pentathlon were excluded and the respective international federations have been given until 2023 to meet certain criteria to secure their place in the 2028 Games.
The list will be put to vote at the IOC session in Beijing in February next year for approval, which is likely to be formalized.
Host city Los Angeles may also propose to include additional sports in 2023 to 2028 and the ICC is hoping that cricket is one of those sports to gain IOC approval.
Baseball, softball and a variant of American football may be in the running for additional sports at the 2028 Olympics.
An ICC board member with knowledge of the process said on the condition of anonymity: “The process of selecting additional games by the host city begins next year (2023) and we expect cricket to be a part of it as well.” .
“We know it will be tough (to include cricket as an additional sport). There’s no guarantee and we’re up against some other great games to make it to the 2028 LA Games.”
In August, the ICC expressed its intention to bid for the inclusion of cricket in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which was also backed by the BCCI, the world’s richest board.
The ICC has also set up an Olympic Working Group that will work on making the sport a part of the Olympics, starting in 2028.
Our sport is united behind this bid, and we see the Olympics as part of cricket’s long-term future. We have over a billion fans globally and almost 90 percent of them want to watch cricket at the Olympics,” ICC President Greg Barkley said then.
In 2024, the IOC will decide on additional games proposed by the organizers of the LA Games. After Tokyo and Paris (2024), the Los Angeles Olympics will be the third host to propose additional games in its schedule.
Six new sports – baseball, softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing – were featured as additional sports at the Tokyo Olympics. Surfing and break-dance will be included in the additional sports at the 2024 Paris Games.
Host cities were allowed to propose additional games as part of the IOC’s Agenda 2020 reforms aimed at helping host countries’ most played sports benefit through the Olympics.
As of 2016, the Olympic program had a limit of 28 sports, but this was removed by the IOC in a 2014 decision. Now, each Summer Olympics will be limited to 10,500 athletes and 310 events.
The IOC has a list of the main sports that were almost always present in the Olympics.
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