The International Cricket Council (ICC) has recommended six-team T20 events for both men and women to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games organizing committee (LA28) as it continues its push for cricket to be included in the biggest global sports events. The final decision will be taken by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) around October this year after the LA28 organizers finalize the list of new sports by March.
T20 Format
T20 was the format proposed since both LA28 and the IOC had told the ICC that the format should be one in which there is a world championship conducted, has a compact duration and significant spectator interest. If the proposal is accepted, it is likely that the six participating teams would be the top six in the ICC’s men’s and women’s T20 rankings on a cut-off date. The ICC has not yet finalised a tournament structure and is still discussing options for this with the LA28 organizers.
Limited Teams
The key reason behind the ICC recommending six-team events is the IOC’s drive to become more cost efficient, which it has laid out as part of its strategic plan titled “Olympic Agenda 2020+5”. The IOC has determined that the best way to cut down on costs is to avoid bloated squad sizes across disciplines and the overall contingents. As a consequence, the total athletes’ quota at the 2024 Paris Games will be 10,500, down from 11,300 at the previous Olympics, held in 2021 in Tokyo.
Quality of the event
LA28 also told the ICC that the quality of the proposed event must not be compromised, and it would need to be contested by the very best. This, too, contributed towards the idea to limit the proposed event to the top-six teams for both men and women. Cricket is competing with eight sports to make the 2028 Olympics. The IOC will review the proposals for all of them before finalizing how many could be added to the list of 28 already finalised in February 2022.
Single Venue for Cricket
The ICC has proposed that both the men’s and women’s T20 events be restricted to a single venue. Cricket has its own range of complexities in terms of streamlining costs, with squads travelling with teams of support staff, and requiring a certain number of pitches for games along with training pitches for teams to prepare on. The ICC had already seen the advantage of such cost-saving measures at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last July-August, where women’s T20 cricket was one of the 19 disciplines. Originally, the ICC had recommended two venues for it, but the organizers limited it to one venue – Edgbaston – with 16 matches conducted across ten days with multiple double-headers.
Competition with other sports
Cricket is competing with eight other sports – baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, break dancing, karate, kickboxing, squash and motorsport – to make the 2028 Olympics. The IOC will review the proposals for all of them before finalizing how many could be added to the list of 28 already finalised in February 2022.
Dialogue with IOC and LA28
The ICC has been in constant dialogue with both LA28 as well as the IOC. An ICC delegation had even traveled to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. In December, ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice met with LA28 officials in Los Angeles.
Olympics working group
Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, has been added to the ICC’s Olympics working group, which is headed by Greg Barclay (ICC chairman) and also includes Indra Nooyi (independent director), and Paraag Marathe (former USA Cricket president). The addition of Shah, who is the BCCI representative on the ICC board as well as chair of the finance and commercial affairs committee, is a strategic move. The ICC believes Shah’s involvement could lend an important and potentially influential push in its negotiations with the IOC for cricket to be included at sport’s biggest global event. The working group has updated ICC members with a summary of the discussions it has had with LA28.
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