LA 2028: Cricket will feature six teams each in men's and women's events

IANS April 10, 2025 223 views

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games will feature cricket as a new sport with six teams competing in men's and women's T20 tournaments. Each team will be allowed a 15-member squad, representing a total of 90 athlete quotas per gender. This marks a significant milestone for cricket, which has been approved for Olympic inclusion by the International Olympic Committee. The addition of cricket is part of a broader expansion that includes five new sports, maintaining the Olympic athlete quota at 10,500.

"Cricket is set to make its historic Olympic debut" - IOC Source
Lausanne, April 10: Cricket at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games will be played in the T20 format, with six teams competing in both the men's and women's tournaments, the Organisers said.

Key Points

1

Six teams will compete in men's and women's T20 cricket

2

90 athlete quotas allocated per gender

3

Part of five new Olympic sports inclusion

The event programme and athlete quotas for LA 2028 was approved by the Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday.

The organisers said that a total of 90 athlete quotas have been allocated for each gender, allowing every team to name a 15-member squad.

The cricket venues for LA28 are yet to be confirmed.

Cricket is one of five new sports to feature at the upcoming Olympics. The IOC approved cricket's inclusion for LA28 two years ago, along with baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash.

Cricket was included in the LA28 sports programme during the 141st I0C Session in Mumbai along with Flag Football, Lacrosse, Squash, and Baseball/SoftbalI. It is already part of two of the other multi-sport extravaganzas, the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

Both men's and women's cricket tournaments, played in the T20 format, were part of the Asian Games in 2010, 2014 and 2023.

Eight teams participated at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games while at the Hangzhou Asian Games, 14 teams competed in the men's event while nine played the women's competition.

With the inclusion of boxing, approved by the IOC Session in March 2025, the LA28 sports programme is composed of 31 sports, with an additional five sports proposed by the Organising Committee and approved by the IOC in 2023.

With a total of 351 medal events, 22 more than at Paris 2024 (329), the LA28 programme maintains the core athlete quota of 10,500, with an extra 698 quota places allocated for the five sports proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee (baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash).

In the initial sports programme, with 10,500 athletes, the number of female athletes is 5,333 and the number of male athletes 5,167. The additional sports add 322 female athletes and 376 male athletes. In addition, six mixed events were added to the event programme. Out of 351 events, there are 161 women's events, 165 men's events and 25 mixed events.

Reader Comments

S
Sarah K.
So excited to see cricket in the Olympics! 🏏 This is huge for growing the sport globally. Hope they pick great venues that showcase the game well.
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Raj P.
Only 6 teams seems too limited. Cricket has so many strong nations - they should expand to at least 10 teams to make it truly competitive.
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Miguel T.
As an American, I know nothing about cricket but I'm excited to learn! Will be fun to watch something new at the Olympics.
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Anika L.
Love that they're including both men's and women's tournaments with equal team numbers! 👏 Gender equality in sports is so important.
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David W.
I wonder how they'll select the 6 teams. World rankings? Continental qualifiers? Hope the process is fair and transparent.
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Tara B.
T20 is the perfect format for Olympics - fast-paced and exciting! Though I do wish they'd consider having one Test match as a special event.

We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.

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Tags:
Olympics 2028 Cricket Los Angeles Games T20 Cricket IOC Olympic Sports
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