Cricket Returns To Olympics After 128 Years: Los Angeles 2028 To Host Men’s And Women’s T20 Tournaments At Fairgrounds Stadium-OxBig News Network

The cricket tournament during the Los Angeles Olympics 2028 will kickstart from July 12 onwards, with the medal matches scheduled for July 20 and 29. The venue for the matches will be a temporary, purpose-built Fairgrounds Stadium, built in Pomona, about 50 kilometres from LA, reported ESPNCricinfo on Tuesday.

Six teams in both men’s and women’s cricket and a total of 180 players, will be participating in cricket’s tournament to the Olympics for the first time since 1900 in T20 format. Each team can name a squad of 15 members for the tournament.

Most matches will take place as double-headers, with no matches scheduled for July 14 and 21. The matches will kickstart at 9.00am and 6.30pm local time. The same will be followed for medal matches as well.

The Fairgrounds Stadium, officially going by the name Fairplex, is a nearly 500-acre complex which has hosted the LA County Fair since 1922 and is a regular venue for concerts, trade shows, sports and cultural events.

“When the world comes here for these Games, we will highlight every neighbourhood as we host a Games for all and work to ensure it leaves a monumental legacy,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“We are already delivering that legacy as we announce that there have been more than one million enrollments in PlayLA. I want to thank LA28 and the International Olympic Committee for making these programs possible and for their continued work to host the greatest Games yet,” the statement added.

This is only the second time the sport has made an appearance at the Olympics since 1900. Back then, only two teams, Great Britain and France, had played a two-day match, with the former winning the gold medal.

Cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics demonstrates its growing popularity, with women’s cricket making its Commonwealth Games debut in 2022 at Birmingham. Meanwhile, both men’s and women’s cricket have been part of the Asian Games programme since 2010, 2014, and 2023.

Recently, during the ICC T20 World Cup last year, the USA co-hosted the event along with the West Indies, with Grand Prairie, Lauderhill, and New York hosting a number of matches. The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York also hosted one of the biggest cricketing fixtures of the tournament, the clash between Asian arch-rivals India and Pakistan.