Canadian cricket already benefiting from boost of impending Olympic return

Amid the excitement of flag football coming to the Olympics, another sport will also join the Los Angeles 2028 program.

For the first time since 1900, cricket — in the forms of men's and women's T20 tournaments — will be contested in California.

And Canadian women's national team player Achini Perera is hoping to be part of the action.

"I remember in 2010, when Sidney Crosby [scored] in overtime, I was sitting there with my family and watching it — like that stage is insane. I almost wondered as a kid, like, 'Oh, why isn't cricket in there?'" Perera said.

Now, of course, it is — not only in Los Angeles, but also in Brisbane 2032.

However, Perera and Canada's women's team face an uphill climb to qualifying as the 31st-ranked squad for a tournament that will feature just six teams per gender.

Still, the goal for Perera and Cricket Canada is for the sport's reintroduction to the Olympics to light a fuse that brings the game to more people across the country and eventually leads to greater success at the elite level.

The process continues Saturday, when the first-ever Cricket to Conquer Cancer fundraiser will take place at Celebration Square in Mississauga, Ont. Meanwhile, in downtown Toronto, the Blue Jays partnered with Cricket Canada on a warm-up jacket giveaway for their game that day.

"It won't be the sole thing that puts cricket on the map in Canada, but it's a very good starting point. And it isn't speaking only to the already growing ethnic population, it's also speaking to Canadians who will be loving the Blue Jays, who will be loving the Raptors and saying, well, hello, there's another sport here," said Carlos Brathwaite, the former captain of the West Indies men's T20 team.

"It's the second biggest sport in the