BOOST FOR CRICKET’S OLYMPICS AMBITIONS

THE absence of National Hockey League players from the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics may be a good sign for cricket’s Olympic hopes. With the likelihood that only one more team sport will be added to the Games Programme for LA 2028, word is that it will be between cricket and baseball. Conventional wisdom

says it should be baseball, a national sport in the US. However, if Major League Baseball athletes follow the lead

of their NHL peers and do not take part, there would be limited appetite for Americans to watch a lesser version and the financial lure of cricket would come into play. The decision to select the team sport for the Games will likely come ahead of MLB making their decision to allow athletes to participate.

Ironically, a key decisionmaker for the Games programme will be Casey Wasserman, chairman and chief executive of LA 2028. No one will be better placed to know which way the MLB are leaning than Wasserman as he is also chairman of the Wasserman media group that manages several leading MLB athletes.