One Match in 1900 to Los Angeles 2028: Cricket's Olympic Story

Few sporting curiosities are as striking as this one: at the second modern Olympic Games, held in Paris in 1900, cricket was on the programme, and it has not been seen at the Games since. A match was played, medals were awarded, and then the sport quietly vanished from the five rings for well over a century. Its return, confirmed for the Los Angeles Games of 2028, closes one of the odder chapters in Olympic history.

The strange case of Paris 1900

The 1900 Games were sprawling affairs, stretched over months and mixed with a World's Fair, and the line between what counted as Olympic competition and what did not was blurry. Cricket was entered, but the entries were thin. In the end only two sides took part: a team from Great Britain, made up largely of players from clubs in Devon and Somerset, and a French side that included many British residents in France.

The match was a two-day, twelve-a-side contest played in Paris, and Great Britain won. The result was recognised with medals, though the players themselves are said to have been unaware that they were taking part in the Olympics at all, such was the loose way the event was organised. It was only later that the contest was formally given Olympic status. With no other nations entering, cricket's place at the Games was left as a footnote.

Why cricket stayed away

There was an attempt to include cricket in the first modern Games in Athens in 1896, but not enough teams could be found. After Paris, the sport never returned. Several factors worked against it. Cricket's traditional formats took days, which sat awkwardly with an Olympic timetable of a few weeks and dozens of sports. The game was also strongly associated with a limited group of countries, which made it difficult to argue that it had the global reach the Olympics sought.

Cricket also had its own priorities. For much of the twentieth century its governing bodies were focused on Test matches and, later, one-day internationals, and the Olympics were not seen as a pressing concern. Where multi-sport competition did appear, it was in the Commonwealth Games. Men's cricket was played at the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur, and a women's Twenty20 tournament was held at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where Australia took the gold medal. The Asian Games has also hosted the sport.

Twenty20 changes the argument

The emergence of Twenty20 cricket in the early 2000s transformed the case. A T20 match lasts roughly three hours, can be played in a stadium with a limited footprint, and produces a clear result. It suits the television schedule and gives a spectator who knows nothing about cricket a fair chance of understanding what is happening within a few overs. For a sport trying to appeal to the Olympic movement, this was the format it needed.

The growth of women's cricket added a further argument. The Olympics place a premium on gender balance, and the women's game had been growing fast, with major tournaments drawing big crowds and rising viewership. A package of men's and women's T20 competitions fitted the Olympic ambition to be inclusive and modern.

The road to 2028

Cricket's global governing body and its partners built the case over several years, culminating in a vote at an International Olympic Committee session held in Mumbai in 2023. Cricket was approved, together with a handful of other sports, as part of the programme for Los Angeles 2028. The format is T20, with both men's and women's tournaments contested by a small field of teams, six in each according to the plans announced.

A tournament of that size raises its own questions. With so few places, qualification will be fiercely competitive, and some of the game's leading nations may have to earn their spot. How teams from the Caribbean, which often compete as a combined West Indies side in cricket but are separate Olympic nations, will be represented is among the issues the game has to settle. Another question is how the Games will fit around the busy calendar of franchise leagues and international fixtures.

• The format: T20, chosen for its short duration and broad appeal.
• The scale: separate men's and women's events with a small number of teams.
• The host: Los Angeles, in a country where cricket is still developing.
• The challenge: qualification, scheduling and player availability.

What an Olympic return could mean

The benefits could be substantial. Olympic inclusion typically brings access to government funding in some countries, since national sports bodies often direct resources to Olympic disciplines. For nations where cricket is a minor sport, that might mean better facilities, coaching and competition. It also offers a showcase to audiences that would not otherwise tune in, and an opportunity for cricketers from smaller nations to become household names for a fortnight.

The location adds interest. The United States has a long if forgotten cricketing past and a fast-growing community of players, many from South Asian and Caribbean backgrounds. A cricket tournament on American soil, in front of a global audience, could help the sport establish itself in one of the world's largest sporting markets.

A circle completed

There is a satisfying symmetry in cricket's story. A game that appeared once by accident, in a muddled Games where even the athletes were unsure of their status, returns more than a century later by deliberate design and global consensus. Whether it becomes a permanent fixture will depend on how well the first tournament is organised and received. But after more than a hundred years waiting in the pavilion, cricket is finally walking back out to bat on the Olympic stage.