By Daniel Brettig, Greg Baum, Roy Masters and Carla Jaeger
For the announcement of cricket’s formal proposal for inclusion by the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, the game was summed up in a single image - that of its biggest name, Virat Kohli, batting for India, its economic powerhouse.
Ultimately, it was money, the prospect of Indian broadcast rights swelling revenue for the LA games by something in the region of $US200 million, that ensured cricket’s passage to return to the Olympics after appearing once before, in 1900.
For players, the news was joyous. The first thing men’s captain Pat Cummins, informed by this masthead of cricket’s impending inclusion, said was: “Men and women?”
He saw it as a breakthrough for cricket’s global relevance. He also allowed himself, briefly, the thought of leading Australia out to play in five years’ time. “I’ve got some friends that play in different sports around the world, particularly America,” he said in Lucknow. “Trying to explain to them the scale of the love of cricket in places like India, and having billions of people watch, they just can’t understand it.
“So to be on the world stage with every country looking at it, it’s going to be awesome. We all grew up with the 2000 Olympics. It was just a huge moment. We get to do amazing things in cricket, but none of us has ever played at the Olympics.”
Where other inclusions such as flag football (a non-contact version of gridiron), baseball/softball, squash and lacrosse are considered likely to add to the community feel of the LA games and be played to large crowds, cricket will be the one to bring in the most extra cash due to the engagement of south Asia.
And while a couple more steps need to be taken before men’s and women’s Twenty20 events are formally inked into the program for LA and then Brisbane in 2032, their outcome is foreshadowed by the fact the next session of the International Olympic Committee’s board is to take place from Sunday in Mumbai amid the playing of the men’s ODI World Cup.
“I think it’s an amazing announcement for the sport and a great new opportunity ... to have the chance to play in the Olympics, I think that would be as important as any ICC event,” Ellyse Perry said in Melbourne on Tuesday.
“The opportunity to get more countries involved in what’s typically been a Commonwealth sport from a traditional point of view. So it’d be amazing - something like Rugby Sevens has probably experienced the same thing.”
The International Cricket Council launched a formal bid in 2021. Signs had pointed towards cricket’s inclusion for some months, and had been expected to reach this step in September.
According to sources with knowledge of discussions, speaking confidentially because of their commercial nature, one of the major holdups had been the LA organising committee’s insistence that a way be found for the host city to share in the broadcast windfall to be reaped by cricket.
That cash is traditionally gleaned by the IOC and then shared with member associations, but as was the case when the United States last hosted the summer games in Atlanta in 1996, LA’s organisers are intent on raising as much revenue as possible. Those commercial wrinkles have now been smoothed.
Viacom have the Indian broadcast rights for Paris 2024. However, a deal is yet to be done for Los Angeles and Brisbane.
Australia players celebrate winning the gold medal in the cricket final at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022.Credit: PA
“Cricket at the Olympic Games will provide mega increases in global TV audiences for the Olympics that will increase the value of its sports media rights very significantly,” said Colin Smith of Global Media and Sports, a leading professional sports advisory firm specialising in media rights.
“This is especially the case for the subcontinent where minuscule media rights for the Olympics’s broadcast will immediately become mega estimated to be upwards of 16 to 26 times greater than current Olympics rights to reach [between] [US] $250 to $400 million.”
For Cricket Australia, a leading advocate of Olympic inclusion for more than two decades, the move is less about advancing Australian cricket than the opportunities it opens up elsewhere.
A sport’s credibility in many nations is closely tied to its presence or absence from the Olympic program, and considerable public funds may also be opened up for cricket in countries where inclusion effectively means formal government recognition.
Opposition to cricket in the Olympics was led, for many years, by the cricket boards of England and India, for reasons of scheduling, possible loss of revenue, and the imposition of greater government oversight.
But with India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hometown of Ahmedabad set to bid for the 2036 summer games, cricket’s Olympic presence has now become mutually beneficial for enough parties to be an imminent reality.