Former Indian cricketer Atul Wassan talked about how the T20 format gives teams an opportunity to compete against strong cricketing nations in the Olympics and said players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would love to have an Olympic medal in their trophy cabinet. At the recently concluded 19th Asian Games, India fielded a relatively inexperienced team that claimed the gold medal. In light of the performance of teams like Afghanistan and Netherlands in the T20 format, Wassan believes that with five years to go before the 2028 Olympics, teams will have a chance to develop and compete in the T20 format.
“There are five years for the 2028 Olympics. I feel that teams will develop and provide good competition. If India wants the medal, they will have to send their main team. Great cricketers can win the World Cup, but if a big player gets a chance to claim an Olympic medal, they will definitely work towards it, just like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma want an Olympic medal,” Wassan told ANI.
“The format of T20 has become so popular and because of that you can quickly organize a tournament with more teams. If you look at T20, there are teams like Afghanistan, Netherlands… who can compete with top teams in the T20 format,” added Wassan to it.
The 2028 event also includes sports such as baseball/softball, lacrosse, squash and flag football. The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games Organizing Committee’s proposal to include these games in the program was accepted at the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai.
Cricket made its only appearance at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, where Great Britain defeated France in the final. But it is now played at Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
“The proposal of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (@LA28) to include five new sports in the program has been accepted by the IOC session. Baseball/softball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash are scheduled to take place in LA28. #IOCMumbai2023,” IOC Media posted to ‘X’.
The IOC session in Mumbai was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. The session serves as an important meeting of the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). During the IOC sessions, important decisions are made about the future of the Olympic Games. India is hosting the IOC session for the second time after a gap of around 40 years. The 86th session of the IOC took place in New Delhi in 1983.
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