How cricket could become the IOC’s gateway to India

July 27 : When cricket returns to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, it will bring far more than bats, balls and wickets. Its inclusion reflects a strategic calculation by Olympic leaders that the surest route to billions of new viewers runs through India, cricket’s commercial heartland and a country they believe is increasingly central to the Games’ future.

Cricket, absent from the Olympics since 1900, offers the International Olympic Committee something no recent addition has: direct access to a fan base of more than 2 billion people and, crucially, the commercial power of the Indian market. As the Games seek a younger and broader audience, it may prove the most valuable sport added to the Olympic programme in decades.

Cricket has been one of the major global sports not to feature in the Olympics, IOC Sports Director Pierre Ducrey told Reuters in an interview.

"It is very strong in markets where maybe you could say the Olympic Games today may not have penetrated as much as they have in other markets," he said.

"Cricket will bring to the LA Games audiences that may not necessarily tune in regularly to watch the Olympic Games," Ducrey added. "It's a win-win compromise where we'll give them more opportunities, and they will definitely strengthen our appeal in markets that are very strongly interested in cricket and sometimes mostly in cricket." 

INTEREST IN BROADCASTING RIGHTS

The sport's imminent return to the Olympics has already generated demand, with the IOC confirming "strong interest" in broadcasting rights for the Indian subcontinent for the 2028 Games.

That would amount to "a multiple" of the value of the 2024 Games contract, IOC Television and Marketing Services Managing Director Anne-Sophie Voumard told Indian media