How cricket could become the IOC’s gateway to India

July 27 : When cricket returns to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, it will bring far more than bats, balls and wickets. Its inclusion reflects a strategic calculation by Olympic leaders that the surest route to billions of new viewers runs through India, cricket’s commercial heartland and a country they believe is increasingly central to the Games’ future.Cricket, absent from the Olympics since 1900, offers the International Olympic Committee something no recent addition has: direct access to a fan base of more than 2 billion people and, crucially, the commercial power of the Indian market. As the Games seek a younger and broader audience, it may prove the most valuable sport added to the Olympic programme in decades.Cricket has been one of the major global sports not to feature in the