Adding cricket to Olympics is a huge boost for the sport - and the Games

Cricket is coming to the Olympics in 2028, delivering the sport to a global audience. But the Games themselves might be the biggest winner, writes Ben Horne.

The two biggest markets in world sport could be blown open by a decision to take cricket to the LA Olympics.

Cricket will give the International Olympic Committee the chance to finally crack the behemoth that is India, and in return, the Olympics will provide cricket with a golden opportunity to conquer the final frontier that is the USA.

For Australia, news that cricket is set to be officially admitted into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is massive because it will be a huge boon for the 2032 Brisbane Games if it has the national sport locked in as a flagship event.

The only blow is the Gabba is being used as the home of athletics, meaning cricket will need to find a new Queensland home – probably Metricon Stadium down the highway on the Gold Coast.

But why not make cricket the event you take around the country for the Olympics, and have the MCG, SCG, Adelaide Oval and Perth Stadium hosting matches that will have the world watching.

There does feel something slightly hard to warm to about the money-rich sport of cricket joining golf and tennis in waltzing into the Olympics for a good time when individual athletes are slaving away for four years to get to Los Angeles.

But those reservations are tempered by the fact American tag football is apparently set for a debut in Los Angeles as well.

What’s next?

Maybe Oz Tag at the Brisbane Olympics.

Adding cricket to the Olympics will put the sport on the world’s biggest sporting stage. Picture: Chris Hyde-ICC/ICC via Getty Images

Cricket has made just one appearance at the Olympic Games, way back in 1900 in Paris, when just two teams contested, with Great Britain winning gold.

It’s staggering it’s taken this long for readmission, and the benefits could be massive for both the Olympics and cricket.

India has only ever won two individual gold medals in the history of the Olympic Games (their other eight have come in field hockey) and with cricket as a vehicle, the IOC is quite rightly sensing an opportunity to harness a population of 1.4 billion that has never been truly engaged in the Olympics.

Same, too, for the 169 million people of Bangladesh and 231 million people of Pakistan. The subcontinent has been a blind spot for the IOC.

Cricket at the LA Olympics would translate into a blockbuster global television event and might even convince India to bid to host its first ever Olympic Games.

A packed MCG for the Women's T20 World Cup final in 2020. Stadiums around Australia could host Olympic matches in 2032. Picture: AAP Image/Michael Dodge

As big a shot-in-the-arm as that would be for the Olympics, the benefits for cricket could be just as great.

The USA, with an ex-pat subcontinental population into the tens of millions, is an untapped market for cricket and, if conquered, could take the sport to the next level as a global juggernaut.

FIFA’s decision to take the football World Cup to the USA in the 1994 helped soccer make it as a big-time sport in America, and similar possibilities are there for cricket.

The inaugural Major League Cricket T20 league was hailed a success by stars like Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis and the sport will get another boost next year when it hosts matches in the T20 World Cup also hosted by the West Indies.

But the Olympics would be next level as it would give cricket a chance to show the United States just how big it is.

The lure of historic Olympic gold would also be a massive lure for female and male players around the world, as it was for Meg Lanning’s Australians at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Women’s cricket in particular would benefit hugely from the exposure of an Olympic Games.

The pressure is now on cricket to make its presence at LA 2028 truly special and change the game forever.

Originally published as Adding cricket to Olympics is a huge boost for the sport - and the Games