Cricket’s return to the Olympics for the first time since 1900 has been confirmed as International Olympic Committee members voted to include the sport in the 2028 Games.
Only two delegates at the IOC session in Mumbai on Monday voted against the new sports.
There is expected to be both a T20 men’s and women’s tournament.
Organisers for the LA Games have proposed a six-team event, but no firm decision has been made on the number of teams, or how they will qualify.
Niccolo Campriani, sports director of Olympic and Paralympic Games 2028, said the committee is “thrilled to be welcoming the world’s second most popular sport”.
Italian Campriani, who won gold medals at the 2008 Games in Beijing and London 2012 in shooting, added the selection of cricket’s shorter format was “the ultimate win-win-win”.
The final event programme and number of athlete quotas in the additional sports will be finalised at a later date.
Host cities are able to propose sports they would like added to the Olympic programme when they stage the event.
The United States is co-hosting the men’s T20 World Cup with the West Indies in June 2024 and is set to field a side as host nation at the LA Games.
Cricket’s only previous appearance at the Olympics was at Paris 1900, when Great Britain won by 158 runs against France in a one-off final, after the Netherlands and Belgium withdrew.
Cricket, however, is not the only sport making a return with baseball, softball and lacrosse set to feature in LA, while Flag-Football – a non-contact form of American Football – and squash are making their debut.
