Cricket
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Cricket at Los Angeles 2028
Venue: Fairgrounds Cricket Stadium
Competition Dates: July 12-13, 15-20 (Days -2, -1, 1-6)
Events: 2 (1 men, 1 women)
| Men’s Events | Women’s Events |
|---|---|
| T20 Cricket | T20 Cricket |
Cricket is a bat-and-ball team sport in which two teams take turns batting and bowling. The batting side tries to score as many runs as possible while the bowling side tries to get those batters out, or in cricket terminology, take a wicket.
While the origins of cricket date back to 16th-century southern England, it was in 1744 that the “Laws of Cricket” were codified. The first recorded women’s match took place one year later.
The traditional form of the game is Test cricket, which has been played internationally since the first official match in 1877 between Australia and England. These matches can last five days, comprising two innings for each team. A shorter, faster-paced format of One Day Internationals (known as ODIs) began in 1971. These one-inning matches have a limit of 50 overs for a side to post a score. The newest and fastest format of cricket is Twenty20 (known as T20), which debuted in 2005. With a limit of 20 overs per side, these matches are usually completed in three hours. It is T20 cricket that will be included at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Cricket matches feature 11 players per team. A bowler throws a ball with a straight arm towards one of a pair of batters 20 metres away. The batter guards a set of three vertical wooden stumps (also known as a wicket) standing in the ground. A wicketkeeper from the fielding side stands behind.
An over is a set of six straight deliveries by a bowler. After those six throws, another bowler from their team takes over from the other end of the pitch.
A batter scores a run when they hit the ball and run to the other end of the pitch as their partner batter runs in the opposite direction. If they score an odd number of runs, the partner faces the next ball. A ball hit to the boundary scores four runs. A ball that clears the boundary rope without touching the ground scores six runs.
The main ways in which a batter can get called out or dismissed include: if the two bails sitting across the wooden stumps are dislodged by the bowled ball; if a batted ball is caught by a member of the fielding team; if the ball hits the batter’s pads in front of the stumps; or if a member of the fielding team removes the bails with the ball before the batter completes a run.
When a team loses 10 wickets, which leaves just one batter on their own, their inning is over. The other team goes to bat and must then try to exceed the score within the overs limit and without losing all 10 wickets.
At LA 2028, the six teams in each tournament will be divided into two groups of three. After a round robin within the groups, each team will play two more matches against teams in the other group who did not finish in the same position. The top two teams in each tournament will play for gold and silver while the third- and fourth-ranked teams will play for bronze.
Olympic Cricket History
Cricket was included as an official medal sport at the Paris 1900 Olympic Games. Just two teams competed; the Devon and Somerset Wanderers from Great Britain defeated the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athletiques from France by 158 runs in a two-day test match.
Before that, cricket had been listed in the provisional program for the first modern Olympic Games, but due to insufficient entries was not actually included at Athens 1896.
In August 2022, cricket was one of nine sports shortlisted as an OCOG Proposed Sport for LA 2028. During the 141st IOC Session in October 2023, cricket in its T20 format was approved for inclusion at LA 2028.
