By Victor Kanayo
After featuring in 1900, Cricket will stage its return to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
This is after International Olympic Committee (IOC) members voted to include the sport in the Games.
Flag football, squash, lacrosse and baseball/softball have also been accepted for Los Angeles.
Only two delegates at the IOC session in Mumbai voted against the new sports.
There is expected to be both a T20 men’s and women’s tournament.
Organisers for the LA Games have proposed a six-team event, but no firm decision has been made on the number of teams, or how they will qualify.
IOC president Thomas Bach said the sports selected will make the LA Games “unique”.
He added: “The choice of these five new sports is in line with the American sports culture and will showcase iconic American sports to the world, while bringing international sports to the United States.”
Niccolo Campriani, sports director of Olympic and Paralympic Games 2028, said the committee is “thrilled to be welcoming the world’s second most popular sport”.
Italian Campriani, who won gold medals at the 2008 Games in Beijing and London 2012 in shooting, added the selection of cricket’s shorter format was “the ultimate win-win-win”.
England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould feels the Olympics in the US is the perfect opportunity to showcase both the men’s and women’s games to different parts of the world.
The final event programme and number of athlete quotas in the additional sports will be finalised at a later date.
Host cities are able to propose sports they would like added to the Olympic programme when they stage the event.
The United States is co-hosting the men’s T20 World Cup with the West Indies in June 2024 and is set to field a side as host nation at the LA Games.
Cricket’s only previous appearance at the Olympics was at Paris 1900, when Great Britain won by 158 runs against France in a one-off final, after the Netherlands and Belgium withdrew.
