MUMBAI: Cricket and flag football were among five sports added to the programme for the 2028 Los Angeles Games on Monday after being approved by the International Olympic Com­mittee as it looks to tap into new global audiences.

Lacrosse, squash and baseball-softball were also approved at an IOC meeting in Mumbai, having been proposed by 2028 organisers.

Under IOC rules, each host city can request the inc­lu­sion of several sports for their edition of the Games.

The five sports put forward by the organisers had already been given the nod from the powerful IOC Executive Board last week, with the session on Monday approving its recommendation with a show of hands. Only two delegates at the session voted against the new sports.

“Cricket has evolved very, very much over recent years,” IOC President Thomas Bach told reporters. “We have seen the growing international importance of cricket and the Olympic Games want to incorporate the most popular sports worldwide.”

The IOC session also approved the inclusion of mo­d­ern pentathlon, after the international federation replaced horse riding with an obstacle running course following a scandal at the Tokyo Olympics where a coach struck a horse that refused to jump a fence.

Weightlifting also secured its spot after changes were made to its anti-doping testing procedures, among other things. Both sports had been provisionally left out of the LA Games.

Boxing’s participation rema­ined in doubt and any decision to include it was put on hold pending developments in governance issues.

Cricket, which enjoys a massive following in India and has a fast growing global audience, returns to the Games after more than a century, having appe­ared once at the 1900 Olympics, with a proposed six-team Twenty20 format — the shortest international format of the game — for both women and men.

“We are thrilled that cricket’s inclusion in the LA28 Olympic Games has been confirmed by the IOC Session today,” Intern­ational Cricket Council Chai­rman Greg Barclay said. “To have the opportunity to showcase our great sport at the LA28 Games and hopefully many Olympic Games to come will be great for players and fans alike.”

The IOC hopes cricket’s inclusion will activate and engage a large, new Olympic audience, wi­th the sport’s worldwide fan base estimated at 2.5 billion people.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Barclay later told reporters in Mumbai. “We’ve got a global sport, what I think is the fastest-growing global sport, but getting onto the biggest sporting stage in the world, the Olympics, is a massive shot in the arm for the game.”

Explaining the push for cricket’s inclusion, Los Angeles 2028 chairman Casey Wasserman, said: “We think the opportunity to bring a sport that has 2.5 billion rabid fans to what we think is the greatest sport city in the world, it’s a really powerful combination.”

Jay Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, welcomed “a momentous occasion” that “aligns” with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing Saturday that India would bid to stage the 2036 Olympics.

While all five sports’ inclusion is for only one edition of the Games, they are banking on the boost provided by participation to spur growth and remain an attractive Olympic product going into the next four-year cycle.

Flag football is a non-contact format of American football played by teams of five. American football last featured as a demonstration sport in the 1932 LA Games.

“We are convinced that flag football will offer an exciting new dimension to the Games — uniting them, for the first time in history, with Americas number one sport in its youngest, most accessible and inclusive format,” said Pierre Trochet, head of the International Federation of American Football.

Baseball has featured in several previous Games. It was added to the 2020 Tokyo program after being left off in 2012 and 2016, but it will not be a part of the Paris Games.

Softball, the female counterpart to baseball, has appeared at five previous editions of the Summer Games and was also left off the Paris agenda.

Lacrosse twice appeared as a medal sport at the Olympics, in 1904 and 1908, while squash had long pushed for inclusion, most recently in 2013 for the 2020 Olympics.

Zena Wooldridge, president of the World Squash Federation, said the game is an “amazingly dynamic, diverse and demanding sport that is perfectly suited for the Olympic Games”.

There was no place, however, for the dance sport of breaking, which is set to disappear from the schedule after making its Olympic debut in Paris next year.

The IOC had set a limit of 10,500 athletes at a Games in a bid to control costs.

But the addition of five new sports to the LA programme — four of them team events — is set to see that figure exceeded for the 2028 Games.

The IOC said it would now work on ensuring the final athlete quota numbers for LA 2028 “remain reasonable”

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2023