An India vs Pakistan Olympics cricket final is now in the realms of reality

While India have won a record eight Olympics hockey gold medals and Pakistan three, the Asian giants have generally been overtaken by European and Australian teams in the last four decades.

At Tokyo 2020, India made a comeback of sorts winning an Olympic medal (bronze) after 41 years, but Pakistan’s hockey standards have declined beyond imagination. Yet, an India vs Pakistan hockey clash anywhere on earth continues to attract capacity crowds. Now cricket adds to this mouth-watering possibility at the Olympics.

Cricket’s Inclusion

While emotions and popularity play important roles in selection of sports in the Olympic programme, LA28 officials and the IOC have demonstrated some acute business sense by including cricket 128 years after it made a tepid debut in the 1900 Paris Summer Games.

Cricket would have been the only team game when the Olympics started in 1896 but due to the lack of entries, it was scrapped. Hosts France and Great Britain were the only two teams to compete in Paris 1900. Great Britain were represented by Devon & Somerset Wanderers Cricket Club while the French team was full of English expatriates. The ‘final’ was played over two days with 12-a-side teams batting two full innings each. Great Britain won by 158 runs.

Cricket in Los Angeles 2028 will be a T20 affair and will be played in both men’s and women’s categories, just like the recently-concluded Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games where India clinched gold in both categories. With enough time to plan, the Olympics should find a slot in the International Cricket Council’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) so that the top cricket-playing nations are able to send their ‘A’ teams to LA28.

Where There’s Cricket, There’s Money

Where there is cricket, there will be money. And assuming that India will surely be one of the likely six teams to line-up at LA, it will be seriously big money. It is learnt that LA 2028 organising committee chief, Casey Wasserman, during the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, last year, needed little convincing that cricket would not only add glamour and grab sizeable eyeballs worldwide, it had great potential to win revenue for the LA28.

With Indian broadcasters yet to sign a deal for the media rights, cricket will significantly impact the bidding dynamics. For the record, the worldwide revenue for IOC from the marketing of broadcasting rights was at about $3.1 billion  for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This is expected to change by the 2028 Games with digital rights expected to fetch the highest price.

Be it the IOC or the FIFA, a yardstick for success of its leadership is how much revenue it wins. During current president Thomas Bach’s tenure, IOC has made significant gains by selling broadcast rights. Location of a Games plays a major role in determining income from media rights. All these years, Europe and America paid handsome money to win the rights with Asia also contributing its might.

Viacom18 paid roughly $31 million to bag exclusive Indian sub-continent rights for Paris 2024. A broadcaster like Viacom18, a Reliance entity, has deep pockets when it comes to cricket. Viacom18 was happy to break the bank when it bid for IPL digital rights and recently, it won the Board of Control for Cricket rights (both TV and digital) by paying a whopping INR 5963 crores (USD 720 million) for five years. LA 2028 could thus see Asian bids for media rights cross the magical $1 billion-mark with cricket making a telling difference.

The Great Leveller

Olympism is not always about money. It’s a great leveller of sorts with the mighty superstars and the lesser known athletes all living, eating and breathing the same ‘Village’ air for almost two weeks. Everyone’s a winner with no place for ego or bohemianism. The ‘Village’ is the ultimate place to satisfy your fandom desires.

For cricket, especially players who walk nine feet tall given the attention they get from fans and the Indian media, Los Angeles will be a reality check of sorts. The Olympics give the true feel of nationalism. This is the only sporting convention where the aspiration and pride for representing the country is ultimate. Fortune and glamour take a complete backseat. The Games are a test of skill and only skill.

Cricket’s footprint is already quite strong in the USA. The ICC, which worked hard with LA28 for over two years, has awarded the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup  to the United States and the West Indies. This will be the first time the US will host ICC World Cup matches. North Americans already have a taste of spicy India vs Pakistan encounters, courtesy the Sahara Cup in Toronto that was played between 1996-1998.

IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders too are playing a big part in increasing T20 popularity. KKR’s US franchise, LA Knight Riders, already has a large fanbase. Based in California, home to the largest Asian Indian population by state, the Knight Riders have done well to spread the good word on T20 cricket.

While all this adds up to leverage cricket’s global image, who knows India’s best medal count in the Olympics could come in the dreamy land of Los Angeles!

Soumitra Bose is a veteran journalist and a research scholar. He tweets @Soumitra65. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication