By Amlan Chakraborty
(Reuters) -Cricket will return to the Olympics after 128 years at the 2028 Games and the popular view is only the best teams should showcase the game in Los Angeles, even if it means leaving out hosts the United States.
Both the men’s and women’s competitions will be a six-team contest in the 20-overs format when cricket is played in the Olympics for the first time since 1900.
The International Cricket Council is yet to announce the qualification format but is likely to pick the top six teams in the official rankings at a cut-off date.
The U.S. rank 17th in the men’s list and 24th in the women’s, which make their position untenable in the cricket competitions of their home Olympics.
“I’d love an associate member to get in there but let’s be realistic,” Sumod Damodar, who represents associate members like the U.S. in the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee, told Reuters.
“Should the U.S. get an automatic place? I’ll say let’s put the best that we can on show.
“We’re coming back into the Olympics after 128 years. We need to make that impressions so that people will say, ‘Okay, we don’t want them to go back and beg ‘please include us’ before every Olympics’.
“Like track and field, we need to become a regular Olympic fixture. We need to show them that this product is worth it.”
With Brisbane hosting the 2032 Olympics and India bidding for the 2036 Games, Botswana cricket chief Damodar hoped cricket will feature in the next three Olympics and beyond.
“We need to send the best six teams to showcase our game from the perspective of what it has in store for us, for the public, and the spectators in the future Olympic Games,” he said.
Damodar added the ICC should announce a cut-off date sometime next year giving all members enough time to improve their rankings.
USA Cricket did not reply to a Reuters email seeking its view but Sanjay Govil, who owns the Washington Freedom franchise in the Major League Cricket (MLC) in the U.S., also said only the best should represent cricket at Los Angeles.
“It should be based on merit, because we also want to make sure that it’s competitive, right?” Govil told Reuters.
“I think we should have the six best teams because otherwise it would be unfair to leave out a team to accommodate USA.”
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Christian Radnedge)
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