After years of pushing for cricket to be a part of the world's major sporting events, the ICC has finally made a move, proposing a six-team T20 event in the 2028 Olympics.
Despite rumours that cricket had failed to make the Olympics, there has not yet been a decision made by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) according to ESPNcricinfo.
Rather, the IOC is reportedly meant to meet in October to decide once and for all whether cricket will be played in LA 2028.
As it stands, the T20 event would likely consist of the six highest-ranked T20 countries across the men's and women's game at the cut-off date in order to not compromise on the quality of the game.
However, the format of the tournament would be finalised after the IOC accepts the ICC's proposal.
The one thing that is for sure is that the tournament would be in the T20 format since the sport must have a world championship tournament (ruling out Tests, T10 and other recently shortened formats) and must be of a compact duration (ruling out ODIs).
As part of the "Olympic Agenda 2020+5," the IOC is trying to significantly reduce costs.
To avoid hefty costs at the Olympics, the IOC has determined that too many squads, particularly oversized squads as they are in cricket, must be avoided.
Corroborating this, the IOC released a statement saying "evolving the event-based programme with a key focus on simplifying the venue master plan, and reducing cost and complexity in each sport".
In turn, there will be just 10,500 total athletes in Paris as opposed to 11,300 in Tokyo in 2021.
This number is likely to decrease even more by 2028.
Due to the sheer amount of costs associated with transporting huge squads and equipment, LA28 has advised the ICC that all games be played at one venue for both the men's and women's tournaments.
This is similar to what happened in 2022 at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games where women's cricket was played at one venue as opposed to the two venues recommended by the ICC.
This saw Edgbaston host 16 matches across a ten-day span which included numerous double headers and very tight fixtures.
Baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, break dancing, karate, kickboxing, squash and motorsport are all competing with cricket for a place in the 2028 Olympic Games but the ICC will be hoping that the worldwide popularity of cricket will be enough to secure a spot.
Geoff Allardice, the CEO of the ICC met with LA28 organisers in December and has reportedly been a part of constant discussions since.
Cricket is the most popular sport in the world at the moment not to be a part of the Olympics.
Adding it into the games would see Australia's medal hopes significantly boosted with two genuine shots at gold.
The ICC hopes that playing cricket in LA 2028 will see a spark in popularity for the sport whilst also providing cricket fans with a new tournament to look forward to.
