Despite being one of the most followed sports, cricket remains a mystery to countries outside the subcontinent. To make cricket more recognisable, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have adopted to feature the sport in the upcoming Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032) summer games across both men's and women's categories. This marks the return of cricket to the Olympic stage, having first featured in the 1900 Paris Games, with 24 teams from Great Britain and France participating for the gold medal. Los Angeles Olympics 2028: Cricket Will Feature Six Teams Each in Men’s and Women’s Events.

However, come the LA 2028 Olympics, the IOC will have to select six men's teams and as many women's team recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as T20I playing nations, which the Los Angeles Games organisers are to announce. So in this article, we list down possible criteria for the IOC to select six participating men's and women's teams for the cricket event in the upcoming Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Which 6 Cricket Teams Can Qualify and Play at the LA 2028 Games?

Host County

The most likely selection for one of the teams is the United States of America (USA) national cricket team, which will get a direct qualification into the six-team event for men's and women's events by being the host nation for the LA Olympics 2028. This will leave five slots remaining.

ICC T20I Teams Rankings

In what could be the simplest of ways to select six teams for the cricket event in the LA 2028 Olympics for the IOC, will be giving direct qualification to the top six nations in the ICC T20I Team Rankings, which will be decided based on a pre-chosen cutoff date. IOC could also select the top-ranked nation from each region, and pool them together into the six-team cricket event.

Regional Qualifiers 

Much like how ICC holds regional qualifiers for the T20 World Cup, the IOC might opt to have regional qualifiers for regions — Asia, Europe, Africa, East Asia-Pacific, and the Americas. Given Asia, in particular South Asia, brings in the most eyeballs and traction, IOC might even have two teams from the region.

Reigning ICC and ACC T20 Champions

Like direct qualification for the host nation, IOC could also hand two entries to the reigning ICC T20 World Cup champions and ACC Asia Cup T20 champions, which will leave only three remaining slots for the six-team event in the Summer Olympics.

Commonwealth and Asian Games Winners

Having already been played in the Commonwealth and Asian Games, IOC can select the gold and silver medalist teams from each event, and give them direct entry for the LA 2028 Olympics event. With Cricket Set to Feature at LA Olympic Games 2028 Take A Look at Cricketers With Olympic Connections (Watch Video).

Will There Be an India vs Pakistan T20I Match?

As seen during the T20 World Cup 2024, the India vs Pakistan encounter witnessed a jam-packed stadium in New York and remained the only profitable tie, which could force IOC to have both nations in a six-team cricket event in the LA 2028 Games. This could mean possibly selecting as many as two teams from the South Asia region based on ranking.

The thing known so far about the cricket tournament in the LA 2028 Games is that each team will consist of 15 members, and 90 athlete quotas for men's and women's events, respectively, have already been allotted.

The LA 2028 Summer Olympics will take place in Los Angeles, USA, and will be held between 14 July and 20 July.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 10, 2025 01:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).