Ricky Ponting on cricket at the Olympics: 'Opens up completely different audiences to our game'
T20s will feature at the Olympics' next edition, which will be in Los Angeles in 2028
PTI
11-Aug-2024
Ricky Ponting: "I'm really excited about where the game's headed" • Getty Images
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels that cricket's return to the Olympics in Los Angeles in four years' time [LA28] will be beneficial to the game.
"It can only be a positive thing for our game. I've sat on various committees over the last 15 or 20 years, and it's always been on the top of almost every agenda - how do we get the game back into the Olympics? And finally, it's there," Ponting said on The ICC Review. "It's only four years away. I think it also gives cricket a chance to break into the grassroots level in the US."
Cricket is returning to the Games after 128 years, with the only time it featured previously being in 1900, with two teams - Great Britain and France - participating, and the former winning gold.
"The thing about the Olympic Games, it's not [about] the host nation. It's about the audience that it opens up," Ponting said. "The Olympic Games being viewed by so many people all around the world, it just opens up completely different audiences to our game that's seemingly growing on a daily basis anyway. It can only be a real positive thing for the game."
Ponting said infrastructure and qualification pathways would still need to be appropriately figured out but, with its inclusion, the game is moving in the right direction overall. "Facilities and infrastructure and those things are going to be key, and how many [participating] teams they actually decide on. I think it's only six or seven teams that they're talking about, so qualification is going to be at a premium - how you actually qualify to get into the Olympic Games.
"So all those are things to think about, [but] I'm really excited about where the game's headed and the growth of different markets that we're seeing emerge."
Cricket at LA28 will be played in the T20 format, with both men's and women's teams set to feature.
The game had been in the spotlight in the USA earlier this year too, when the country co-hosted the men's T20 World Cup with the West Indies.
Edited PTI copy.