The International Olympic Committee’s executive board approved the addition of cricket as a sport for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles on Friday. On the second day of an executive board meeting in Mumbai, IOC President Thomas Bach declared that the IOC officials had accepted a proposal from the organizers of the Los Angeles Olympics to include cricket as one of five new sports in the 2028 Olympics. In addition to cricket, the 2028 Olympics will also feature four new sports: baseball/softball, flag football (a non-contact version of American football), squash, and lacrosse. Each host city is permitted by IOC regulations to ask that a number of sports be added to their particular Games.
Top things to know about Cricket in Olympics 2028
Discover more about cricket, a sport that the LA28 organizing committee recommended be included to the 2028 Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which will meet in Mumbai in October 2023, will need to approve the admission of five extra sports, including cricket, during the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028. Athlete quotas and the official event calendar for the additional sports will be determined later.
Cricket will not be played as a two-innings-a-side game, unlike its sole prior appearance at the Paris 1900 Games. The suggestion suggests a limited-overs Twenty20 format for the competition instead.
But what exactly is Twenty20 (often referred to as T20) in cricket? What are the T20 cricket rules, how many players are needed, and what other international competitions are there? Learn everything there is to know about the current shortest form of the sport that is played internationally.
What kind of format is T20? What is the duration of a T20 cricket game?
Currently, there are three formats for international cricket games: Twenty20, One-Day, and Test. Play in a test cricket match can run up to seven hours a day, including lunch and tea breaks. These matchups typically span four or five days. There are two innings for batting and two for fielding for each team. The longest cricket format is this.
Each team bats and fields once during a one-day cricket match. At the international level, each team bats for 50 overs, or 300 balls, in games that are not impacted by weather. The average match lasts eight hours. One innings per side also applies to Twenty20, the fast-paced variation of international cricket. The term “Twenty20” describes a format wherein, in non-rainy matches, each team bats for 20 overs (120 balls). A typical match lasts three hours. In 2003, the format was initially made available.
What are the T20 cricket rules? What is the size of a cricket team?
Each side consists of 11 players, one of them is the wicketkeeper (the wicketkeeper is the person who collects the ball from the bowler; think of them as comparable to a catcher in softball or baseball). Each team must have a minimum of five bowlers because no player may bowl more than one-fifth of the allowed innings (four overs out of 20 if the game is not delayed by rain). All eleven members of the team are allowed to bat. Baseball is a bat-and-ball game, but unlike other sports, players only get to bat once per game. When they bat, they are considered “in” until they are out. The number of overs limits the game, therefore some players might not get to bat.
A side scores four runs for each physical run the two batters make along the wicket, if it happens along the ground, and six runs if it happens in the air without the ball touching the ground, unless the ball has crossed the playing boundary. The team’s innings ends when the 20 overs are up or when they lose 10 wickets, meaning that only one player out of the 11 is left “not out”; in both scenarios, the team’s score is equal to the total number of runs. The opposing side will then have 20 overs, or 10 wickets, to dismiss that total. They win if they are able to accomplish this; if not, the first team wins.
Where did 20-over cricket start?
Playing cricket dates back hundreds of years. In 1744, the first set of “Laws of Cricket” were created. The T20 format, in comparison, is a relatively new player on the scene yet, like its predecessor, it was created in England. The official T20 cricket rules were developed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003, despite a reduced version of the game being played in New Zealand during the 1990s. On June 17, 2003, Hampshire Hawks and Sussex Sharks played in the first-ever T20 match at The Rose Bowl, ushering in a new era for the sport.
At Hove in August 2004, England’s women and New Zealand’s women played the first T20 International game. Australia and New Zealand faced off in the first men’s international matchup six months later.
Which major T20 cricket international teams are there?
A composite representative team, the West Indies Cricket Board is composed of delegates from twelve different National Olympic Committees. England participates in Olympic events as a member of the British Olympic Association, whereas Cricket Ireland is a territory covered by both the BOA and the Olympic Federation of Ireland. The other nations in the top 20 of the T20 world rankings as of September 8, 2023, are Namibia, Scotland (a part of Great Britain), the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Nepal, and Hong Kong. China, Canada, and Oman are among the males; Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Scotland (a region of Great Britain), the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Nepal are among the women.
At LA28, how many teams will play T20 cricket?
In due course, details on the competition’s actual format, including the number of participating teams and the way qualification will be handled, will be released.
Which other international Twenty20 cricket competitions are there?
The major international T20 cricket events are currently held every two years: the ICC T20 World Cup and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. T20 cricket competitions are held at the multisport Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Pacific Games, Southeast Asian Games, and (by 2024) African Games.
