Image for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Five sports, including cricket and squash, were included in the 2028 Los Angeles Games on Monday after gaining the approval of the International Olympic Committee.

Cricket makes its return to the Olympics after more than 100 years after the sport was approved for inclusion at the 2028 Los Angeles Games by the International Olympic Committee’s executive board.

IOC president Thomas Bach, speaking after the second day of an executive board meeting in Mumbai on October 13, said officials had accepted a proposal by LA organisers for Twenty20 cricket to be included as one of five new sports together with baseball/softball, flag football (non-contact American football), squash and lacrosse.

But the final choice of which sports are on the 2028 programme was voted today at the IOC session in Mumbai. Each host city, under IOC rules, can request the inclusion of several sports for their edition of the Games.

The LA Games proposal is for a six-team Twenty20 cricket tournament for men and women. T20 is a short format of the game.

The IOC hopes cricket’s inclusion will activate and engage a large, new Olympic audience, especially among Asian fans of the sport.

Cricket has been played in the Olympics only once before, in Paris in 1900, when England defeated France.

(With inputs from Reuters, PTI)