ECB supports move to see cricket included at 2028 Olympics

Ian Watmore has endorsed cricket appearing in the Olympic Games, in a major boost to the sport’s prospects of being a part of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

“We want to help grow the game globally and believe cricket’s inclusion within the Olympic Games would provide a wonderful opportunity to showcase our sport domestically and take it to new audiences around the world,” the chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board said. “The ECB will enthusiastically support efforts to secure this outcome.”

Watmore’s views are particularly significant given his position on the International Cricket Council’s Olympic Committee, created recently to explore the possible benefits of cricket joining the Games.

The question of cricket rejoining the Games – Great Britain won the gold medal in 1900 in the only cricket match in Olympic history – has been a perennial topic in recent years. But it has become more urgent with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which was previously a staunch opponent of joining the Games, believed to have changed its stance at its recent annual meeting.

The International Olympic Committee is thought to support the notion of cricket joining the Games. Cricket’s case is boosted both by the size of its global audience and because it is particularly strong in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, large markets in which interest in the Games is relatively small. Mumbai is considered one of the favourites to host the 2032 Games, making the inclusion of cricket even more appealing.

While discussions about cricket’s inclusion remain preliminary, Twenty20 is considered the most likely format in which cricket could feature. Should cricket rejoin the Games, there are expected to be men’s and women’s tournaments.

It is thought that the IOC would favour full-strength teams featuring, avoiding similar eligibility rules to football, in which teams comprise under-23 players alongside three who are over-age.

Should cricket return to the Games, England would come under the umbrella of a Great Britain side, meaning that Scotland players would also be eligible.

Players from Northern Ireland would also be eligible, with Northern Ireland athletes given the option to represent either Ireland or Great Britain in other sports.

Another complication is that West Indies would not be able to feature, with Caribbean nations instead competing individually. But Cricket West Indies is still known to support the idea of Olympic inclusion.

The ECB was opposed to joining the Olympics for years, citing disruption to its schedule. But its stance has changed in recent years.

Watmore’s words – his first public comment on the Olympics – position the ECB as a strong advocate for Olympic inclusion. With India now seemingly on board and with the vast majority of the ICC’s 104 member nations already having said they are supportive, barriers to cricket becoming an Olympic sport are clearing.

Supporters of cricket joining the Olympics have long pointed to two areas of the sport that would particularly benefit from inclusion: emerging nations and the women’s game. The example of rugby, which rejoined the Games in 2016, and is now believed to receive at least £25 million through national Olympic committees per four-year cycle, is seen as showing what cricket could gain.

As significant as the direct funding from governments and Olympic committees, inclusion would increase the visibility of cricket, which could help reach new players, fans and sponsors. The success of basketball in recent editions of the Games, stretching back to the USA’s “dream team” in Barcelona in 1992, is considered to have been crucial in the sport’s globalisation.

Joining the Olympics also fits in with the ICC’s strategy of targeting the United States, which has been identified as a crucial market.

The US has ambitions to become a full member of the ICC by 2030, and has bid to co-host the Twenty20 World Cup with the West Indies, with the 2026 tournament viewed as ideal. Following up a T20 World Cup in the US with cricket appearing in the Los Angeles Games only two years later would represent a major attempt to galvanise the sport in the US.

Women’s cricket will feature in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next year. The competition will feature eight sides, and some view it as a stepping stone to cricket returning to the Olympics.

The IOC’s athlete limits mean that an Olympic cricket competition is likely to be restrictive in the number of sides making the main event. About eight to 10 competing nations in the final event, after qualifying rounds, appears to be the likeliest scenario.