Cricket at Olympics: A boost for the sport, a dilution of its exclusivity

The ICC is going to push for cricket’s inclusion in Olympics 2028.

Sportspeople of different vintages have often enough complained — not maliciously but, perhaps, more with envy — the lopsided attention cricket gets in comparison to other sports in India. That overwhelming attention peaked many times over the last few days.

First was the, thankfully, moderately timid end to the uber-jingoistic India-Pakistan World Cup match on Saturday. The lead up to that match, with the controversies over ticketing, the expected 1.3 lakh turnout in Ahmedabad and India’s 7-0 record over Pakistan in ICC (International Cricket Council) 50-over World Cups was deafening enough. In and post-match cringe-worthy moments included religious chants in the stadium, an apparently one-sided, unsporting support for India, that brings attention to mixing sport with religion and politics.

India won the match comfortably, not surprising, considering it was hardly a level-playing field — an overwhelmed Pakistan team without much support from the audience. The Pakistani cricket team is hardly the force it used to be till recent times, playing fewer bilateral series, hardly playing any at home, and generally paling in the rather large shadow cast by Indian cricket.

Then, on Monday, the International Olympic Council (IOC) session in Mumbai approved the inclusion of T20 cricket — along with softball, flag football, lacrosse, and squash — in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, marking the sport’s return to the Olympic movement for the first time after 1900. That year, in Paris, Great Britain and France were the only teams that competed. In LA, as of now, six teams including host the US that does not play any known cricket and may fill its team with expats, will battle for three medals, significantly improving India’s chances of finishing in the top three.

It’s worth considering what took cricket so long to get into the Olympics, if sports like BMX Freestyle, Breaking and Skateboarding can be included (for Paris 2024). The fact that cricket’s inclusion (in LA) comes with that of the flag football (what even is that!), softball and lacrosse is mildly embarrassing as well.

It can be argued that since cricket is played only by a handful of countries, it does not deserve a global stage like the Olympics. But India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, countries where the sport is hugely popular, together account for a quarter of the world’s population. By sheer numbers, cricket’s popularity surpasses many other sports. By the same logic, how many countries actively participate in trampoline gymnastics (also part of Paris 2024)?

Cricket’s inclusion in 2028 has been driven by a variety of factors. The inaugural Major League Cricket (MLC) was played in the US this summer, mostly in Dallas’ cricket-specific stadium. The league included teams like Los Angeles Knight Riders (of Knight Riders Sports Pvt. Ltd that also owns the Kolkata team in the Indian Premier League, IPL) and MI (Mumbai Indians) New York, whose owner Nita Ambani is an IOC member.

“Cricket has evolved over recent years; I can’t speak 50 years before,” said IOC president Thomas Bach in Mumbai on Monday. “This great development of cricket, we have been made aware of this, not just in India but beyond. Nita Ambani has given (us) good advice. We have seen the figures. We discussed (this) with the organising committee of LA.”

Niccolo Campriani, the sports director of the LA Games, also credited Virat Kohli, the “third most followed athlete in the world on social media, with 314 million followers. That’s more than LeBron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods combined. This is the ultimate win for LA 2028, the IOC and the cricket community.”

While the IOC’s purpose is to widen the scope of the Olympics, attract new audiences and regions, and improve financial possibilities, cricket’s inclusion also points to India’s growing power in the world — cricket, at this point, is driven predominantly by its following in India. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the sport’s most influential administrative body and cricket’s following in the US is spearheaded mostly by non-resident Indians and people of Indian origin there.

Bach said that the financial aspect is not a consideration but a consequence. The most important argument, he said, is the growing international importance of cricket and that the Olympic Games want to incorporate the most popular sports worldwide. The sport also has a growing importance in the US, he added. “Therefore, this proposal was welcome. It has to be implemented and we can see what consequences it has.”

There is also an argument in opposition to cricket’s inclusion into the Olympics. For long, sporting disciplines in India were informally divided into cricket and Olympic sports, which included pretty much the rest, excluding indigenous varieties like kho-kho and kabaddi. This also allowed cricket to maintain its own identity in some sense, distinct, and not bracketed with any of the others. That distinction does not work any longer with cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics, diluting its “exclusivity” a bit. Athletes (other than cricketers) came into the limelight, into dining room conversations once every four years, during the Olympics (and in part during the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games). Now, they will have to share even that attention with cricketers.

The prospect of cricket lasting beyond LA in the Olympics is to be decided. Brisbane will host the 2032 edition and given Australia’s liking for the sport, cricket may be part of that Olympics as well. Even two editions of the Olympics would give the sport a different direction, one that it desperately needs. As the One-Day International format continues to struggle, the sport’s power gets increasingly concentrated with a few nations, a presence in the Olympics will give cricket bragging rights. At least to begin with. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to get one more medal at the Olympics, given our poor returns from the quadrennial event.