China are serious about winning gold in cricket at LA 2028 Olympics: Steve Waugh

Cricket latest Legendary Australia cricketer Steve Waugh revealed that China is serious about winning gold in cricket at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. Cricket will mark its return at the Games after a whopping 128 years.

Steve Waugh (GettyImages Photo)

Legendary Australia cricketer Steve Waugh has revealed that China are serious about winning gold medal in cricket at the Los Angeles Olympics 2028. Cricket will be making a comeback to the Olympics after a whopping 128 years, with its only appearance at the Games coming way back in 1900. In the first appearance, Great Britain beat France by 158 runs to win the gold medal.

Hence, there’s massive excitement ahead of the sport’s return at the quadrennial event. Recently, Steve Waugh also shared his views on its return and said that cricket’s inclusion is being taken seriously as China has started building a team to win the Gold.

“As soon as cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics was announced, China started building a team. They are serious about winning gold. T20 is massive now. It’s billions of dollars, and it’s growing every day. Test cricket will survive, but T20 will dominate. Players will soon be contracted mainly to franchises. Test matches might even need special permissions,” Waugh as quoted as saying by ANI.

Meanwhile, the LA28 Organising Committee has announced that the Fairgrounds in Pomona, Southern California, will host cricket at the Los Angeles 2028 (LA28) Olympic Games. Cricket was officially added to the Los Angeles Olympics programme during the IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) 141st Session in Mumbai in October 2023. It joins five other new sports at LA28, namely baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (six-a-side), and squash.

The sport has been allocated 90 athlete quotas, allowing for six-team competitions in both the men’s and women’s events, with each team comprising 15 players. Cricket has recently seen a resurgence in major multi-sport events. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, women’s cricket was featured for the first time, with Australia claiming gold and India taking silver. In the 2023 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, 14 men’s teams and 9 women’s teams participated, with India securing gold in both categories.