Cricket is set to be played in the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. It's set to be a huge hit. There is big anticipation towards it. A little known fact is that cricket was once played in the Olympics. We have to go all the way back to 1900.
A cricket match was played as part of the 1900 Summer Olympics. It took place between 19–20 August at the Vélodrome de Vincennes between teams representing Great Britain and France.
Originally, four teams entered - Belgium, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands. They were scheduled to compete in a knockout tournament, with the semi-finals scheduled for August 4–5 and August 11–12 and the final scheduled for August 19–20.
However, Belgium and the Netherlands both withdrew before the draw as the Netherlands were unable to field a complete cricket team; while Belgium didn't send their cricket team to Paris. Therefore, the semi-finals were scratched and Great Britain played France in a single match on the dates originally scheduled for the final.
Neither team was nationally selected: the British side was a touring club, the Devon and Somerset Wanderers (alias Devon County Wanderers), while the French team, the French Athletic Club Union, was composed mainly of British expatriates living in Paris.
Cricket had been scheduled as an event at the first modern Olympics in 1896, being listed in the original programme for the Athens Games and would've been the only team event at the Games; the tournament was cancelled due to a lack of entries.
Four years later, at the Paris Games, there was also a shortage of entries: Belgium and the Netherlands both withdrew before the draw. Their withdrawal left only Great Britain and the host nation, France, to participate.
The slightly haphazard nature of the cricket tournament was mirrored throughout the rest of the 1900 Olympics: events took place throughout a six-month period from May through October and like the Games themselves, were often considered part of the Exposition Universelle, a world's fair held in Paris from 15 April until 12 November 1900.
The match had been intended to be a standard eleven-a-side contest but by mutual agreement from the captains; this was increased to twelve-a-side. This is a move which the scorecard printers hadn't expected: extra names had to be added by hand.
Play commenced at 11:00 on Sunday, 19 August, with the touring Wanderers batting first.They were bowled out for 117, with only four members of the team reaching double figures. Frederick Cuming, one of the four Old Blundellians, top-scored for the side with 38; followed by their captain and Exeter Cricket Club opening batsman, C. B. K. Beachcroft with 23. The French were then bowled out for 78, the bowling led by Frederick Christian who claimed seven wickets.
Play closed at 17:00 after both sides had completed their first innings and the Wanderers had a lead of 39 runs. The Wanderers batting improved the following morning and they added 145 runs for the second innings; declaring their innings closed with five wickets down. Beachcroft was again successful, reaching a half-century, a feat also achieved by Bowerman, who top-scored with 59.
The French required 185 runs to win but lost their first ten wickets for eleven runs. At this point, they attempted to play out time, which would've meant the match was drawn. The match was just five minutes from the end when their eleventh, and final, wicket fell, granting the Wanderers a 158-run victory.
Toller was the pick of the Wanderers bowlers in the second innings, claiming seven wickets and conceding nine runs.
After the match, the English side were awarded silver medals and the French side were given bronze medals. Both teams were also given miniature statues of the Eiffel Tower. The match wasn't covered in any national newspapers in England or France, although some of the local Devon and West Country newspapers did publish reports.
Fast forward to today and qualification for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 will be decided based on continents and play-off matches; rather than the top six-ranked sides, says England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chair, Richard Thompson.
Cricket is returning to the Games for the first time in 128 years and will be played as a six-team T20 tournament. Thompson said that the qualification process had not been finalised but that it would be decided geographically rather than by rankings.
"We are there by invitation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and you abide by their rules," Thompson told BBC Test Match Special.
"It is still being finalised but the IOC's preference is to work to the five-ring principle, with teams from each of the continents - so Europe would be between Ireland and Great Britain. We would unite with Scotland and create Team GB.
"It would throw up the opportunity, if you took the principle that USA would play as the host country, and that would free up one additional slot for every other full country to have a play-off match to enable one of them to qualify."
Thompson also expressed an ambition for more than six teams to take part, with the 2032 Games to be played in Brisbane and likely a three-way tussle for 2036 between Qatar, Saudi and India - with the hope that the latter would see cricket at the "front and centre."
He also said that talks are still ongoing regarding the opportunity for cricket in the Paralympics, but believes that its inclusion in the Games will "globalise" the sport.
"At the moment we are a very significant international game, but once you're at the Olympics you become a global game. China will only focus on sport that is in the Olympics, they will look to Hong Kong to be their outpost for cricket.
"The opportunity to grow the game globally is very, very real and it starts now and we'll certainly see that play out in 2028."
The matches, featuring both men's and women's teams, will begin on 12 July - two days before the opening ceremony - with all matches staged at a venue which will be constructed at the Fairgrounds in Pomona.
There will be two games played daily at Pomona - located 30 miles from the athletes' village in Los Angeles - starting at 09:00 and 18:30 Pacific Daylight Time.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has opted to shift from its original qualification plan - using the top six ranked teams as of a cut-off date - to a continental qualification system. This revised model, which was approved by a majority at the ICC's recent AGM. This will allow one nation per continent to qualify, aligning with the Olympic ethos of broader global representation.
Under the new system, six teams will feature in each category. Based on current ICC T20 rankings, the likely qualifiers would include India (Asia), Australia (Oceania), England (Europe), South Africa (Africa), and either the USA or a Caribbean nation from the Americas.
The sixth spot may go to the host nation, with the USA's automatic qualification still under discussion.
This change was driven by Full Member nations, who raised concerns about traditional powerhouses such as Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka potentially missing out under a purely ranking-based model.
The USA faces unique challenges: many players in the men's team are not naturalised citizens, while the women's team sits outside the ICC's top 20 rankings. These complications may influence the final structure, which is expected to be confirmed at the ICC's next quarterly meeting in October.
Cricket being played in the Olympics sounds very exciting to me. I usually follow the Olympics and the various news that may follow. Cricket will create a huge buzz for the event. I agree that this will increase the popularity of the sport. Hopefully, more people will fall in love with the sport.