Cricket bBack in Olympics After 128 Years
By Ethan Wang
Cricket will be played in the 2028 Olympics after 128 years! It is coming back fresh to the games in a new way called T20 or Twenty20.
The structure of this new format is you have 20 overs, or 120 balls, to try and score as many runs as possible. The game will take about 3 three hours to finish, and is full of hits like fours and sixes, which are hits where the batters run around four or six times.
In this new format, there are only six countries, one from each continent (excluding Antarctica) that will play in the tournament.
The teams will probably include the United States, India, Britain, South Africa, and Australia. However, the sixth spot will go to a country that will have competed in a tournament with other countries. The U.S. is automatically chosen since it is the host of the games.
The matches will be held from July 12th through the 29th. The women’s and men’s finals will be on July 20th and July 29th respectively.
The last time cricket was played at the Olympics was during the 1900s Paris Olympics, and only two teams competed. Britain played France, and Britain won by 158 runs.
The British team was mostly composed of Devon and Somerset Wanderers, while the French was composed of British expatriates* living in Paris.
The reason only two teams competed was because the Netherlands and Belgium both withdrew from the tournament. The Netherlands could not make a full team, and Belgium didn’t send their team to Paris.
This sport may become a permanent Olympic sport in the future if everything goes well .
Links to Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_at_the_1900_Summer_Olympics#:~:text=A%20cricket%20match%20was%20played%20as%20part,Britain%20won%20the%20match%20by%20158%20runs.
https://www.newsahoot.com/articles/cricket-is-back-at-the-olympics
*Expatriates – a person who lives outside their native country