The International Cricket Council had reportedly put together a video presentation as a proposal for the inclusion of the sport in the Olympics. The presentation focused on how cricket has billions of fans and global icons like former India men’s team captain Virat Kohli and recently retired Indian women’s legend Mithali Raj. The virtual presentation was done last week for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
ICC has been trying to push their case for the Olympics with the promise of bringing along billions of fans. As per Cricbuzz, ICC has based their presentation around the stars like Kohli and Mithali and cricket-crazy nations like India and Pakistan. The Delhi-born player boasts a following of around 216m followers on Instagram alone which reaches a global audience far larger than ICC.
Alongside international icons like Kohli and Raj, ICC has included the magnanimous commercial opportunity that the region of South Asia can offer to the Olympics. The presentation was made to LA28 and not the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Cricket is currently competing with eight other international sports federations like karate, baseball, softball, kickboxing, squash, American football, Lacrosse and break-dancing are the other disciplines that are pushing to be part of the Olympics
According to a report in the American media, "the shortlisted IFs had to meet certain criteria outlined by LA28 and the IOC, in areas such as environmental sustainability, universality, gender equality, integrity and fairness, popularity and host country interest, athlete safety and cost and complexity."
Cricbuzz had also previously reported that LA28 expressed that they are not compelled to include a new sport but aren’t against the new disciplines. The new entrants will have to adhere to the cap of the 10,500 athletes quota fixed by the IOC.
