ICC To Go Forward With Its Bid To Include Cricket in the Olympics
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that it’s attempting to get the sport of cricket added to the Olympics after a 128-year long absence at the global event. Preparations are ongoing to make a bid for the same, with Los Angeles 2028 being the marker for the return of the sport.
Cricket was recently added to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which could serve as an audition to include the sport in the Olympics somewhere in the near future. Talking about the excitement behind seeing Cricket at the Olympics, ICC Chairman Greg Barclay stated that more than 90% of cricket fans want to see it happen.
ICC To Go Forward With Its Bid To Include Cricket in the Olympics
“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. 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. 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 tantalizing,” Barclay mentioned.
ICC Olympic Working group has been set up to push for cricket’s inclusion at the Olympics
To realize their dream of seeing Cricket at the Olympics, ICC set up a working committee to help make a bid for the sport. The committee will be chaired by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chair Ian Whatmore. The rest of the members include ICC Independent Director Indra Nooyi, Chair of Zimbabwe Cricket Tavengwa Mukuhlani, ICC Associate Member Director and Vice President of the Asian Cricket Council Mahinda Vallipuram, and Chair of USA Cricket Parag Marathe.
Marathe was positive about the idea since it would help grow the sport in the country and engage the masses. There are already plenty of cricket fans in the USA and its appearance in Los Angeles in 2028 will only boost the growth in the country.
“USA Cricket is thrilled to be able to support cricket’s bid for inclusion in the Olympics, the timing of which aligns perfectly with our continuing plans to develop the sport in the USA. With so many passionate cricket fans and players already in the USA, and a huge global audience and following for the sport around the world, we believe that cricket’s inclusion will add great value to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and help us to achieve our own vision for establishing cricket as a mainstream sport in this country,” he said.
This could be welcome news for cricket fans as it would help with the growth of the sport. Whether or not the push for inclusion bears fruit is yet to be seen.
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