$268 Million Olympic Inclusion Pitch Can Put Americans Under Pressure to Level Up Their Game in This British Sport

Cricket is the 2nd most popular sport in the world, and yet it isn’t a part of the Olympics. A decision that has baffled fans of the sport from various parts of the world, mostly South Asia and England, where it was invented. However, of late, there has been a strong push by the ICC (International Cricket Council) to IOC (International Olympic Council) to include cricket at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. And to put forth this appeal to the IOC, a strong case was built on the back of intimating to them about the multi-million dollar deal they would be making from Indian media only.

ICC has pitched the idea of cricket’s inclusion at the Olympics to the IOC, and the crux of that appeal is a $268 million revenue from the Indian market. If it ultimately gets included, this might put America under some duress to improve their chances of excelling at the game.

Will Americans fancy cricket at the Olympics?

The USA currently ranks 15 in the ICC ODI rankings and even further below 22 in the T20 rankings. That is below all major cricketing nations including the likes of India, South Africa, England, etc. With the highest chances of T20 (20 over game each) game likely to be played, if it’s included in the Olympics, the pressure will be mounting on the USA cricket team to excel significantly in order to stand a chance of winning a medal.

The IOC and the 2028 Olympic host committee are in the midst of adding newer sports to its already existing and eclectic mix of sports in the tournament. ICC took upon this chance to offer cricket as one such candidate, by using the financial approach. Yahoo reports that as per a Sportico estimate, the Olympic media rights in India can see a huge jump by more than $200 million.

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The committee has declined any comment on the matter, but the strength of the argument, there are hopes pinning on the cricketing side of the world.

Cricket has a longer history than the modern Olympics

Cricket isn’t one of the most popular sports in the United States, whereas, one of its closer-resembling sports baseball is. Baseball is also one of many sports like Lacrosse, etc, that are part of the Olympics. Surprisingly enough, international cricket wasn’t first played by England. It was first played by the United States against another unlikely candidate, Canada. It is officially the first ever International match ever played when Canada visited the USA to play a Test cricket match. For the lesser-known public, cricket also entered the Olympics in 1900. Great Britain played against France and the former won. Since then, cricket has vanished from the Olympics.

With the current push to bring cricket back after more than a century, it would certainly delight fans from major cricketing nations. Previously, Los Angeles had made Magic Johnson the vice chairman of its committee to secure the bid for LA as the host for the 2028 Olympics. However, will the committee and the IOC now go for cricket based on the revenue model itself remains to be seen.

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