Courtesy: Google
In the latest announcement, the organisers of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games (LA28) have stated that the City of Pomona, West Coast, the USA, will be hosting the cricket matches during the Olympics in just over three years’ time. While naming the venues for the Olympic Games, the LA28 organisers stated that the cricket will be returning to the grand stage of the Olympic movement for the first-time in 128 years.
Notably, there will be men’s and women’s tournaments in the T20I format at the LA28 as far as the sport of cricket is concerned with six teams participating in each of them. Every nation will be allowed to name a 15-member squad upon earning their qualification through to the cricket spectacle at LA28, and with that, there will be a total of 180 players competing at the Olympics, 90 players each in men’s and women’s tournaments.
In the report published in Cricbuzz, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games organisers spoke at length about the return of cricket to the grand stage after more than a century. They were quoted as saying, “Cricket (T20), a globally renowned sport which was added to the 2028 Olympics sport program in 2023, will make its Southern California debut at the Fairgrounds in Pomona in a temporary, purpose-built structure.”
It is understood that the LA28 organisers were looking to host cricket matches on the East Coast earlier, mainly in the New York area, where the T20 World Cup 2024 was played last year before they changed their plan to a city in the southern part of the state of California in the USA.
I want to express my gratitude to LA28 and the International Olympic Committee: Jay Shah
Jay Shah, the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman, welcomed the announcement from the LA28 organisers, and said, “Although cricket is a hugely popular sport, it will be a fantastic opportunity to expand traditional boundaries when it features in the Olympics in the fast-paced, exciting T20 format that should appeal to new audiences. On behalf of the ICC, I want to express my gratitude to LA28 and the International Olympic Committee for their support and look forward to collaborating with them and ICC Members in preparing for LA28 and making cricket a huge success there.”
