Cricket in 2028 Olympics: Decision put on backburner

Cricket will have to wait for its major Olympic moment as a decision on the inclusion of the game in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles has been delayed until October.

Mumbai:The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has postponed the decision on the inclusion of Cricket in Olympics 2028. The Executive Board (EB) of the IOC will hold its meeting as planned, however, the discussion of the inclusion of new sports in the Olympics in 2028 has been removed from the agenda.

An Executive Board (EB) meeting of the IOC is scheduled on Friday 8 at Lausanne, Switzerland, however, deliberation on cricket's inclusion is expected when the IOC meets in Mumbai on October 15-17. The IOC has also postponed the scheduled online media conference where it was supposed to announce the new sports for the Los Angeles (LA) Games in 2028.

"One of the agenda items originally planned for the IOC EB was a report by the IOC Olympic Programme Commission on the sports programme for the Olympic Games LA28. Due to ongoing discussions between the IOC and the Organising Committee, the Olympic Programme Commission has not yet had the opportunity to hold its meeting to prepare its final recommendation for the IOC EB. As a consequence, the sports programme for the Olympic Games LA28 will be discussed during a later IOC EB meeting, to take place at a date to be decided," the IOC stated in an official note on Wednesday.

IOC president Thomas Bach, four Vice Presidents, and 10 other members were supposed to consider a final recommendation from the LA 2028 Games organising committee about the inclusion of nine new sports. The nine sports seeking their entry at LA28 are Cricket, Flag Football, Karate, Kickboxing, Baseball-Softball, Lacrosse, Breakdancing, Squash and Motorsport.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been fighting for many years for the inclusion of Cricket in the Olympics. IOC president Thomas Bach has said publicly many times that he would love to see the T20 format capture more audience from the subcontinent when the games are on.

Cricket is growing in popularity in the US, as was evident during the inaugural Major League Cricket (MLC) held in July in the States.