April 13, 2024
After more than a century and now with an estimated 2.5 billion fans worldwide — cricket is returning to the Olympics.
With its dynamic, faster-paced T20 format, the world's second most popular sport was added to the 2028 Los Angeles Games program by the International Olympic Committee on Monday along with lacrosse, baseball-softball, flag football and squash.
"Having cricket in the Olympics means an interaction of a global audience," Canadian men's cricket team captain Saad Bin Zafar told CBC Sports. "Cricket has a huge fan following outside North America. [The] Olympics has a huge fan following across the world and [it's now] an interaction of two different fan bases merging into one.
"I believe the Olympics will gain a lot from it and I believe cricket will gain a lot from it."
The decision regarding cricket's inclusion to the Olympics for the first time since 1900 — the sport's only appearance at a Games — was confirmed by the IOC's full membership at a meeting in Mumbai, India.
"We're looking forward to working with Cricket Canada," said Canadian Olympic Committee CEO and secretary general David Shoemaker. "It's a sport that's very much played by and embraced by new Canadians. The more we can make Team Canada look like Canada, that's really important to me personally and to us as an organization."
According to Statistics Canada, 500,000 immigrants arrived in the country between 2015-2020 from countries where cricket is the national sport or has national representation.
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