Leander Paes, India’s only Olympic medallist in tennis, has put his weight behind cricket’s bid for inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics (LA28). His support for the sport’s reintegration into the Olympics comes against the backdrop of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the LA28 Organising Committee gearing up to make a recommendation on which of the shortlisted additional sports could be included in the final programme of the LA28 Summer Olympic Games.
The proposal, which will subsequently be put forward for ratification at the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai next month, is crucial to cricket potentially making the LA28 cut, with eight other sports on the shortlist – football, karate, kickboxing, baseball-softball, lacrosse, breaking, squash and motorsport – also in the fray.
According to Paes, the Atlanta 1996 bronze medallist in men’s singles tennis, if cricket finds a spot on the final list of sports at LA28, it would be a win-win proposition for the sport and the Olympics at large. “I think the Olympics stands for unity,” Paes, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, said during the men’s ODI World Cup trophy tour at the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata on Friday. “The Olympics stands for bringing people together – not just cross-country and cross-continent, but also cross-sport. So, I am 100% in favour of cricket coming into the Olympics.”
Cricket last appeared in the Olympics during the 1900 Paris Games, where, in the only match played in that edition, the Great Britain men’s team beat France by 158 runs and won the gold medal.
For the 2028 iteration, cricket is understood to be a frontrunner for the IOC's approval, with the global governing body favorably cognizant of its mass appeal in the Indian subcontinent in particular. If the sport is given the green light, it will feature both men’s and women’s events at LA28.
Cricket, in its 20-over avatar, has enjoyed recent success in the multi-sport universe. The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham hosted an eight-team women’s tournament and competitions across both gender categories are lined up for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, later this month.
Emphasizing how cricket’s global footprint and following has grown over the years, Kolkata-born Paes underscored that the sport regaining its Olympic cachet would be beneficial for India in particular. “I think it will be a great addition (to the Olympics),” he said, “especially for India, because for us to get our women’s team and our men’s team in cricket into the Olympics not just gives us more chance of winning more gold medals or silver medals or bronze, but also includes all other sports as well.
“As much as golf got into the Olympics, it is very important for having cricket, which is such a global sport; it is such a great sport all over the world. Now, not just seven countries play (it), like it was in the '80s, but so many countries play now. I think it’s a great addition and I can’t wait to see India perform at the Olympics and get gold medals. That will be wonderful.”
Paes’ bronze at the Atlanta Games remains a watershed in India’s Olympic history. The country had gone without a medal for three straight editions before Paes, ranked 126 in the world at the time, put India back on the medals’ table by beating Fernando Meligani in the bronze-medal match.
Jhulan Goswami, the former India women’s cricket captain and holder of the world record for most wickets in the women’s international game, harked back to Paes’ heroics in Atlanta and as an enduring highlight in Indian sport.“I still remember in 1996 in the Olympics when Leander won the Olympic medal,” Goswami, who retired from international cricket last September, said. “As cricketers, unfortunately, we were not able to participate earlier on the Olympic platform, but last year, the India (women’s) team participated in the Commonwealth Games, and the (quality of) contests was very high.
“Australia and India were the finalists. Unfortunately, India couldn’t win the gold medal, but I am really looking forward to LA 2028. Probably six teams will participate and I hope India is one of those six teams; I am really looking forward to that.”
Paes and Goswami batted for cricket’s reinclusion in the Olympics around the same time on Friday evening when the IOC Executive Board (EB) had been holding a remote meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The meeting was held to prepare the agenda for the 141st IOC Session, the IOC’s annual general meeting, which returns to India after 40 years and will be held at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai from October 15 to 17.
One of the key items originally on the agenda of the IOC EB meeting on Friday was to prepare the final recommendation for the additional sports to be included at LA28 for the IOC Session to rubber-stamp next month in Mumbai.
On Wednesday, however, an IOC release stated that due to a delay in drawing up its final recommendation for the IOC EB, “the sports programme for the Olympic Games LA28 will be discussed during a later IOC EB meeting, to take place at a date to be decided.”
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