'Ultimate win-win': Global impact brings Olympics, cricket back together again

After more than a century and now with an estimated 2.5 billion fans worldwide — cricket is returning to the Olympics.

With its dynamic, faster-paced T20 format, the world's second most popular sport was added to the 2028 Los Angeles Games program by the International Olympic Committee on Monday along with lacrosse, baseball-softball, flag football and squash.

"Having cricket in the Olympics means an interaction of a global audience," Canadian men's cricket team captain Saad Bin Zafar told CBC Sports. "Cricket has a huge fan following outside North America. [The] Olympics has a huge fan following across the world and [it's now] an interaction of two different fan bases merging into one.

The decision regarding cricket's inclusion to the Olympics for the first time since 1900 — the sport's only appearance at a Games — was confirmed by the IOC's full membership at a meeting in Mumbai, India.

"We're looking forward to working with Cricket Canada," said Canadian Olympic Committee CEO and secretary general David Shoemaker. "It's a sport that's very much played by and embraced by new Canadians. The more we can make Team Canada look like Canada, that's really important to me personally and to us as an organization."

According to Statistics Canada, 500,000 immigrants arrived in the country between 2015-2020 from countries where cricket is the national sport or has national representation.

WATCH | Canadian cricketer Rayyan Pathan explains T20 format:

At a previous meeting ahead of the IOC vote on Monday, Los Angeles 2028 sports director Niccolo Campriani revealed that cricket was "an easy one to pitch" to the Olympic body.

"Think [about] my friend here Virat [Kohli]. He's the third-most followed athlete in the world on social media with 340 million followers. That's more than LeBron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods combined. This is the ultimate win-win," Campriani said.

Kohli is currently competing for hosts India at the One Day International Men's Cricket World Cup — one of the most watched sporting events in the world and the flagship contest for the sport. The International Cricket Council (ICC) figures show live coverage of the 2019 tournament reached a global cumulative average audience of 1.6 billion viewers.

WATCH | Canadian cricket star Saad Bin Zafar looks back on historic year: 

According to The Associated Press, India — the world's most populous country — is now expected to increase the value of its broadcasting rights for the Olympic body by more than $100 million US.

For 2022-24, Indian media company Viacom18 had purchased the rights for $31 million US, according to The Economic Times.

Boundaries North CEO Rahul Srinivasan believes ICC associate members like Canada, and specifically women's cricket, will also profit from the sport's Olympic inclusion.