The Paris Olympics 2024 may have ended but there are many who are eagerly waiting for the Los Angeles Olympics 2028. Well, these are mainly cricket lovers and they are happy because cricket will once again make an entry in the Olympics.
It was in 1900 that cricket was played in the Olympics for the first time but it didn’t get included in any other Olympics after that. The five sports which have been proposed by the Los Angeles 2028 organizing committee for inclusion are cricket, baseball-softball, flag football, lacrosse and squash.
When the former Aussie cricketer Ricky Ponting was asked about cricket’s inclusion in the Los Angeles Olympics 2028, he said that it is a big positive for the game. Ricky Ponting stated, “It can only be a positive thing for our game. I’ve sat on various committees over the last 15 or 20 years and it’s always been on the top of almost every agenda – how do we get the game back into the Olympics? And finally, it’s there. It’s only four years away. Once again, in the US by that stage, hopefully, with MLC (Major League Cricket), another four years down the track hopefully growing. Who knows, there might even be more teams in the MLC by then. I think it also gives cricket a chance to break into the grassroots level in the US.”
He further added, “But the thing about the Olympic Games, I mean, it’s not the host nation. It’s about the audience that it opens up. The Olympic Games being viewed by so many people all around the world, it just opens up completely different audiences to our game that’s seemingly growing on a daily basis anyway. It can only be a real positive thing for the game. Facilities and infrastructure and those things are going to be key and how many teams they actually decide on. I think it’s only six or seven teams that they’re talking about.”
He also talked about the qualification of the teams, “So qualification is going to be at a premium, how you actually qualify to get into the Olympic Games. So all those things to think about, I’m really excited about where the game’s headed and the growth of different markets that we’re seeing emerge. And the way that I sort of try and compare the two is we’ve all been to games of Major League Baseball. Huge events, the bat and ball game that Americans are growing up with and that game goes for four hours and through the history of the game, there’s less than one home run scored in every game.”
Ricky Ponting further talked about the comparison between cricket and baseball, “So when you compare baseball to what the excitement and entertainment package that T20 cricket brings, then it should be a reasonably easy sell to the young kids in the US. So that’d be the angle that I’d be certainly pushing is just the excitement factor that comes with the game. And I think if they do that, then I think it’s very sustainable.”
Ricky Ponting talked about the opportunities too as he said, “There’s huge opportunities for growth, even with the Indian investment in MLC and how keen they are to stay involved and make it big and turn Washington Freedom into a household name in world cricket. Then I think there are some great opportunities there. It’d be a pretty nice job, I reckon, to be a mentor around a cricket team in the Olympic Games, to hang out. I was lucky enough to play in the Commonwealth Games and just to be around the athletes in the villages and stuff was quite a surreal environment to be in for a cricketer.”
The former Aussie skipper concluded by talking about people trying to become the coach of the Aussie team. He stated, “So, look, I wouldn’t say no, but I think there’ll be a lot of people putting their hands up to try and be a mentor or a coach for an Aussie team in the Olympic Games. It’d be special to be a part of, so who knows? We’ll keep my fingers crossed and see what happens.”
Here is the video of Ricky Ponting’s interview:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=829582562484613
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There is no denying the fact that cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics will be a big booster for cricket as a game. Agree?
