“Can’t wait to play cricket for India at Olympics”: Jemimah Rodrigues on representing nation at Los Angeles

New Delhi [India], August 13 (ANI): Indian women’s cricket team batter Jemimah Rodrigues expressed her excitement about representing the country at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

Cricket is brought to the marquee event for the first time since 1900 and the decision to bring it back came last year. A two-day match took place between teams from Great Britain and France. Great Britain won the match by 158 runs. Cricket will return to the Olympic programme at LA 2028 after 128 years in the T20 format.

In a post on Instagram, Jemimah wrote, “Loved wearing the current Indian Olympic jersey. Can’t wait to play cricket for India at the Olympics soon! Man, what a feeling that’d be.”

“Also our Indian athletes have shown tremendous passion, commitment, persistence and grit! Win or lose, we’re proud of you,” the post further reads.

Meanwhile, Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting, a three-time ODI World Cup winner, believes that cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics will allow the sport to reach audiences across the world and elevate its popularity.

“It can only be a positive thing for our game. I have sat on various committees over the last 15 or 20 years and it has always been on the top of almost every agenda – how do we get the game back into the Olympics? And finally, it is there,” Ponting told The ICC Review as quoted by Olympics.com.

Cricket was one of five additional sports that was proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially confirmed its inclusion last year.

“The Olympic Games being viewed by so many people all around the world, it just opens up completely different audiences to our game which is seemingly growing on a daily basis anyway. Facilities and infrastructure and those things are going to be key and how many teams they decide on. I’m really excited about where the game’s headed and the growth of different markets that we’re seeing emerge,” the former World Cup-winning captain added.

Ponting was also part of the Australian team when cricket made its debut at the Commonwealth Games in 1998.