Boston, February 17
Nita Ambani, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member and the founder and chairperson of Reliance Foundation, expressed her feelings on the inclusion of Cricket in the upcoming 2028 Olympics, which are set to take place in Los Angeles, California, US.
In October last year, as an example of Indian cricket and its star batter Virat Kohli's global status as the face of the sport, a mention of the former Indian skipper was made during the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 141st session, during which the decision to include the sport in Olympics was taken.
"India is a sport-loving nation. For the Tokyo Olympics, the maximum viewership for the Olympic channel came from India, so imagine what would happen if we added cricket to it. So that's the time when my mind started ticking as to how do I convince the committee members to have cricket as an Olympic sport. Now, they were still in the belief that cricket is a five-day long cricket match... I informed them and this is going to be a win-win situation if you have cricket as an Olympic spot and you'll have the backing of probably two billion people. So I think that is the plug that I used and I'm so happy that now cricket will be an Olympic sport," Nita Ambani said during the keynote address at the Harvard India Conference on Indian Business, Policy & Culture.
Cricket will be a part of the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028 and will make its return after 128 years to the multi-sport extravaganza, announced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday.
The 2028 event will also include sports like baseball/softball, lacrosse, squash and flag football. The proposal from the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 to include these games in the programme was accepted at the ongoing 141st IOC session being held in Mumbai.
Cricket made its sole appearance at the 1900 Paris Olympics, in which Great Britain defeated France in the final. However, it is also played in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
Nita Ambani also spoke about India's bid for the Olympics and how the country plans to make them the greenest and most sustainable Olympics.
Speaking about the Olympics, she said, "I believe that India must have the Olympics. We are going to be the third-largest economy in the world. If you look at the 10 largest economies of the world, nine countries have hosted the Olympics, but only India has not. So I find that really odd. We would wish to see the Olympics being hosted in our country. It will be our pride to host that. So that is the reason, I think the Prime Minister also mentioned that India will bid for the 2036 Olympics...I think we are planning to host a sustainable Olympics where we are planning to refurbish and reuse our existing stadiums and existing campuses. If we bid for it and get it, I assure you that we'll be the greenest Olympics ever...I think India is at the right time now to host the Olympics".
- ANI