Los Angeles Olympics 2028 may feature Great Britain cricket team

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is currently in talks with Cricket Scotland to potentially form a unified cricket team named Great Britain for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo.

Cricket is set to make a comeback as one of the five new sports at the upcoming Los Angeles Olympics, as confirmed by organizers in October last year.

This marks a significant return for the Gentlemen’s Game, which was last seen at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris over a century ago.

The number of teams and qualification criteria for the Los Angeles Games are yet to be revealed, however, if qualified, England intends to play as the Great Britain cricket team.

The ECB aims to uphold the practice of athletes hailing from the United Kingdom, which includes Northern Ireland, participating in the Olympic Games as part of the Great Britain team, commonly referred to as Team GB.

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“With the Los Angeles Olympics four years away, it’s very early stages, but we’re talking to Team GB and Cricket Scotland about the next steps we need to take,” an ECB spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo.

“Once again Great Britain’s Olympians have captured the national imagination with their exploits in Paris this year, and we look forward to working together to compete when cricket returns to the Olympic stage in 2028.

“Along with England and Wales hosting Women’s and Men’s [T20] World Cups in 2026 and 2030, it’s another great opportunity to grow the game and inspire more people to develop a love for cricket.”

Andy Anson, the Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association has shared that in many sports England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland play under the Great Britain name and cricket may follow suit in Los Angeles Olympics 2028.

“We’ve got good experience in golf, in rugby and in women’s football, of how the Four Nations [England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland] can come together and nominate one country to be the main governing body and work with the other countries. So I think cricket will be the same,” said Anson.

“The ECB will be at the centre of that. They’ll have to work with Cricket Scotland to make sure that happens properly. We will help them sign agreements to come together and create a single national governing body, as we have done in those other sports.”

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