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Cricket, Once America’s National Sport, Now Vying for Olympic Inclusion

T20 World Cup. And with that event, the USA will, at long last, bring cricket back to this country.

Of course, cricket also has the previously mentioned ambitious goal: to put the sport back into the Olympics.

If cricket wants to get into the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028, it has some tough competition: baseball and softball (working as one lobby.)

So… wait. Weren’t baseball and softball included in Tokyo? Yes, they were. But not as a permanent medal sport.

Baseball may be the great American pastime, but here’s a fun fact you might not know: Cricket was once the national sport of the United States. And it might be included in a future Olympics. Baseball and softball … well, nothing is guaranteed.

First of all, cricket is jockeying for position as a showcase sport in Los Angeles in 2028. And there’s precedent for that. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the sport currently played by millions of people in 92 countries was not only at one time the national game of the USA, but it was one of the first outdoor sports to be played on these shores.

“An 1844 cricket match between teams from the United States and Canada was the first international sporting event in the modern world, predating the revival of the Olympic Games by more than 50 years,” notes Smithsonian helpfully.

So maybe it shouldn’t come as a great surprise that the sport, propelled by demographic shifts, is increasingly turning up in the U.S. parks and recreation system – and that officials are hoping to jump on that as a springboard to the Olympics.

The parks system is the place where the sport is picking up players here, although cricket-specific facilities have been built. Cricket is governed by the International Cricket Council (ICC). There are multiple formats for cricket; however, these do not affect the size of the field, known as the pitch.

According to the ICC’s Playing Conditions for the ICC World Test Championship 2021-2023, the pitch is a rectangular area 20.12m long x 3.05m wide. It is bounded at either end by the bowling creases and on either side by imaginary lines, on each side of the imaginary line joining the centers of the two middle stumps, each parallel to it and 1.52m from it. Full information on both the men’s and the women’s game, as well as on youth cricket, can be obtained through ICC.

And cricket is likely to gain an even bigger audience since the USA, in conjunction with Cricket West Indies, will host the 2024

The IOC’s Agenda 2020 allows each host city to recommend (note: recommend, not select) some sports for inclusion in those Games – but not necessarily in others. These are known as “showcase sports,” meaning they may be allowed in that one Olympic cycle. In Paris in 2024, for example, the showcase sports will be competitive climbing, surfing (which will probably be contested in Tahiti since the Seine isn’t exactly known for its waves), skateboarding and breaking (known in U.S. pop culture as breakdancing) – and by the way, breaking is far more popular worldwide than it is in the U.S., where it’s viewed as a byproduct of the 80s.

The IOC (perpetually in search of youthbased sports that will counteract its aging viewership) has already noted that climbing, surfing and skateboarding will appear in the LA 2028 Games (they get to make those decisions.) But the IOC has since shortlisted a few sports for Los Angeles decisionmakers to consider: motor sports, cricket, karate, baseball and softball, breaking, kickboxing, squash, American football (the flag football format, contested by both genders in the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama in 2022) and lacrosse (also offered for both genders in the World Games.)

A few quick notes: breaking is considered an odds-on favorite as a lock for inclusion. As to the others, it’s anyone’s guess. You can expect some sports that did not get shortlisted to continue to lobby; those include cheer, which has a North American pedigree and could be considered a dark horse, as well as Ultimate (formerly known as Ultimate Frisbee before Wham-O, the owner of the Frisbee name, got possessive about its use), mixed martial arts and a few others.

The IOC has confirmed that 28 sports will be present in Los Angeles 2028. At press time, the IOC had given the federations of boxing, weightlifting and modern pentathlon to make their own lobbies if they could manage to settle their various disputes. Whether they will – well, it’s anyone’s guess.

The IOC is supposed to release its final decisions on showcase sports for LA 2028 in October 2023 at the 140th IOC Session. The host city of the 2030 Winter Olympics is expected to be announced at that session as well. ★