ICC bats for cricket's olympic inclusion

The International Cricket Council has today confirmed its intention to push for cricket’s inclusion in the Olympic Games showing a keen interest to make the game become world's largest sporting event. The ICC has convened a Working Group to lead the bid on behalf of the sport which will be focused on cricket becoming part of the Olympic family for LA 2028, Brisbane 2032 and beyond. 

Till date, Cricket has just made one appearance in the Olympics in 1900 in Paris when only two teams competed at the event – Great Britain and hosts France – meaning the sport's inclusion in 2028 would mark the end of a 128-year absence. 

ICC Chair Greg Barclay said "the addition of cricket to the Olympic Games would be beneficial to both the sport and the Games themselves."

“Firstly on behalf of everyone at the ICC, I would like to congratulate the IOC, Tokyo 2020, and the people of Japan for staging such an incredible Games in such difficult circumstances. It truly was fantastic to watch and captured the imagination of the world and we would love for cricket to be a part of future Games,” Barclay said.

"Our sport is united behind this bid, and we see the Olympics as a part of cricket’s long-term future. We have more than a billion fans globally and almost 90 percent of them want to see cricket at the Olympics", Barclay noted.

Adding to this he said : “Clearly cricket has a strong and passionate fanbase, particularly in South Asia where 92% of our fans come from whilst there are also 30 million cricket fans in the USA. The opportunity for those fans to see their heroes competing for an Olympic medal is tantalising.”

“We believe cricket would be a great addition to the Olympic Games, but we know it won’t be easy to secure our inclusion as there are so many other great sports out there wanting to do the same. But we feel now is the time to put our best foot forward and show what a great partnership cricket and the Olympics are.”