After 128 years, cricket will be part of the Olympics again. The sport will be represented again at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, the IOC General Assembly decided. Baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse and squash are also included in the program.
The General Assembly of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved the program proposals of the organizers of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles and cleared the way for the Olympic cricket comeback in Mumbai. The sport, which is particularly popular in India, is returning after 128 years, and baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse and squash are also included in the program. The IOC members decided this on Monday (October 16, 2023).
More than 10,500 athletes
The Summer Games in Los Angeles will exceed the previous limit of 10,500 athletes by adding four new team sports. No sport has to give way, both the modern pentathlon with the discipline of steeplechase instead of show jumping and weightlifting after a reform of the anti-doping fight received the blessing of the executive branch around IOC President Thomas Bach on Friday. The decision about boxing is pending.
According to a report by the industry portal “insidethegames”, the IOC’s TV revenue in India from cricket increased from 20 to 150 million dollars. India is considered the market of the future; Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a bid for the Olympics in 2036. India will turn over every stone in its efforts to organize the 2036 Games, the 73-year-old assured on Saturday. The IOC session took place in the world’s most populous country for the first time in 40 years.
Cricket was Olympic in 1900
The only time cricket was included in the Olympics was in Paris in 1900, when there was only one game between France and Great Britain. Squash had recently applied four times in vain and is celebrating its Olympic premiere in Los Angeles, as is flag football, the physical version of American football. Lacrosse was part of the Olympic program in 1904 and 1908, baseball/softball most recently in Tokyo in 2021. “We want LA 2028 to be a springboard for the five sports,” said Casey Wasserman, head of the organizing committee for the summer games after next.
A “milestone” for the squah association
The German squash association president, Michael Gäde, described the inclusion of his sport in the program for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles as a “milestone in squash history”. “The relief is huge,” Gäde told the SID after the IOC members’ decision in Mumbai, “we have been on the so-called shortlist several times in the past and were therefore close to the goal, and now the sport of squash has made it.”
Squash had applied four times in vain, but in LA the fast-paced racquet sport can now be presented on the big stage. For good reason, says Gäde. “In recent years there has been a lot of successful work on the media representation of our sport on many different levels, with more and more high-quality live broadcasts being created,” he said. In addition, “Squash is very present in the USA as the host country and is one of the fastest growing sports.”
Gäde is hoping for German players in Los Angeles, but the distribution of quota places has yet to be decided. “We have several promising talents who have not been competing in world ranking tournaments for very long and have a lot of potential,” said the President of the German Squash Association (DSQV), himself a former youth national player. Gäde emphasized: “We are provisionally Olympic and it is now important to set the right course for participation in LA2028.”
