Rahul Dravid

Paris, July 29 (HS). Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has praised the inclusion of cricket in the sports programme of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, calling it truly unprecedented.

Dravid was part of a special panel discussion organised by Dream Sports titled 'Cricket at the Olympics – The Dawn of a New Era', which was held at India House for the first time during the ongoing Paris Olympics.

“If you love sports as much as I do, you have grown up with the Olympics. My earliest memories are of Carl Lewis winning the Olympics and the coming of television in India. We used to be glued to the television set to watch these great athletes play and compete. You always want to be part of a great event. In cricket you have great events but they are individual events. To be in that kind of atmosphere, energy and passion is a dream come true for any sportsperson,” Dravid was quoted as saying in a release issued by India House.

The panel also included International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO Geoff Allardice and Dream Sports CEO Harsh Jain.

Allardice said about ICC's approach to take the game forward, “You could see how USA performed in the T20 World Cup and suddenly even people who did not know about cricket started talking about the performance of the USA team. Before hosting the Olympics in 2028, this was the first real statement. It is a really good step for USA to have a really competitive cricket team four years before hosting the Olympics.”

Stating that cricket's inclusion in the Olympics is long overdue, Jain said, “ICC has more than 100 members, so more than half of the world's population plays cricket. It is a big victory for the world that more than a billion people will be watching the Olympics. It is a big moment for India and cricket. It is a big moment for cricket's development in the world. A lot of money will be spent to include cricket at the grassroots level.”

Dravid also talked about the passion for the game in America and said that there is tremendous passion for the game there.

“We know that there is an incredible audience for cricket in the US. We know that just from the number of people who have come from the US to the World Cup and other events. There is a lot of passion for the game in the US. The growth of the game and more people playing the game is phenomenal,” the former India head coach said.

Dravid, who describes himself as a sports fan, was eagerly waiting for cricket to be included in the Olympics. He said, “I always felt that cricket should be a part of it. It is a really great sport. A lot of people around the world love it. It is fantastic for someone like me who is now just a fan. It is really phenomenal.”