ICC reveals schedule for cricket fixtures at LA28 Olympics

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah pictured alongside Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan in the course of the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2024 match towards Pakistan on June 9, 2024. — AFP

The Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday formally confirmed the schedule for cricket’s return to the Olympic Video games at Los Angeles 2028 (LA28), with the lads’s and ladies’s T20 tournaments set to run from July 12 to July 29, 2028.

This marks a historic second for the game, returning to the Olympics 128 years after its solely earlier look on the 1900 Paris Video games, the place Nice Britain received gold towards France in a one-off match.

The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC), again in 2023, had permitted the inclusion of cricket within the LA28.

In April this yr, the IOC gave its nod for a six-team T20 format for cricket for each women and men every. A quota complete of 90 athletes has been allotted for every gender, permitting each staff to call a 15-member squad.

Issuing the cricket occasions schedule at the moment, the ICC introduced that the ladies’s medal match is scheduled for July 20, whereas the lads’s last can be performed on July 29. Each occasions will happen on the Pomona Fairplex, situated roughly 50 kilometres from downtown Los Angeles.

Within the group stage, groups will play two sides from the other pool, excluding the staff that completed in the identical corresponding place. 

For instance, Group A winners will face the second and third positioned groups in Group B, and vice versa.

Outcomes from all matches will decide the ultimate standings. The highest two groups will qualify for the ultimate to contest the gold and silver medals, whereas the third- and fourth-placed groups will compete for bronze.

The event will function double-headers on most matchdays, with matches scheduled to start at 9am and 6:30pm native time.

The inclusion of cricket at LA28 is seen as a big step in increasing the game’s world attain, providing publicity on one of many world’s largest sporting phases.

Whereas the qualification course of is but to be finalised, discussions are anticipated on the ICC’s Annual Convention in Singapore, beginning July 17.

In a press release, LA28 confirmed that the gender sequence and detailed schedule can be introduced later this yr.

“The gender sequence for events in the 2028 Games is not yet available. As stated in today’s release, a more detailed schedule with medal events and gender order will be released later this year,” LA28 stated.

It’s anticipated that the T20I rankings at a selected closing date can be used to find out the six collaborating groups. 

A key query stays whether or not the US, as host nation, will obtain computerized qualification, which might cut back the variety of spots out there to different nations.