Recent reports reveal that the world’s second-most followed global sport, Cricket, could finally be part of the 2028 Olympics with the International Cricket Council (ICC) working towards getting the sport included as part of the Los Angeles Games. The same was confirmed in a statement by MCC World Cricket Committee chairman Mike Getting.

Notably, it was mandatory for a sport to be overseen by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for it to be included in the Olympics. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) did not come under the ambit of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) until recently, which is India’s national affiliate of the world body WADA. This came in the way of the sport being involved in the Olympics.

However, now with BCCI agreeing to follow the guidelines by NADA, chances of the sport being involved in Olympics are strengthened.

A former batsman of the England Cricket team, Gatting, said that the new chief executive of ICC, Manu Sawhney, told MCC’s Cricket Committee that steps have been taken to make sure that cricket is included in the biggest sporting competition in the world.

“We were talking with Manu Sawhney the ICC chief executive, and he was very hopeful we can get cricket into the 2028 Olympics,” Gatting was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

“That’s what they’re working towards at the moment and that would be a huge bonus for cricket worldwide, it would be fantastic,” he added.

It is also worth noting here that earlier in the year, Sachin Tendulkar, a global cricketing icon, had also advocated for cricket to be included in Olympics.

“It’s two weeks, that’s a good thing about it, it’s not a month, so it’s one of those (events) where scheduling for two weeks should be fine once every four years once you do the first one,” Gatting said.

“You’re going to have – one hopes – a four-year period, once you know you’ve been accepted into the Olympics, that gives you a chance to actually shape your two weeks, so it’s not as if it is butted into the schedule.

“I think the next 18 months will be very interesting as to how we do that. One of the problems has been negated, where the BCCI is now working with NADA, the drugs agency, which it wasn’t previously a part of.

“That will help a long way towards the sport being whole, which is what we need it to be to apply for the Olympics, both men and women to play and all countries to comply,” he said.

Earlier, Women’s Cricket was included for the Commonwealth Games scheduled in 2022.