Cricket: Top things to know 

Cricket is one of the five additional sports proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee for inclusion at the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028, pending approval from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at their session in Mumbai (October 2023).

The final event programme and number of athlete quotas in the additional sports will be finalised in the future.

Unlike its only previous appearance at the Paris 1900 Games, cricket will not be contested as a two-innings-a-side competition. Instead, the proposal foresees a limited-overs Twenty20 format for the event.

But what is cricket, and specifically Twenty20 (also known as T20)? What are the rules of T20 cricket, how many players are required, and what are the other international tournaments?

Discover all about the shortest version of the sport that’s played at an international level currently.

What is the T20 format? How long is a T20 cricket match?

There are currently three formats of cricket played at an international level: Test cricket, one-day cricket, and Twenty20 cricket.

In Test cricket, each team generally has two innings to bat and two innings in the field, with matches scheduled for four or five days and play lasting for up to seven hours each day, including breaks for lunch and tea. This is the longest form of cricket.

One-day cricket sees each team bat once and field once. At the international level, in matches which are not affected by rain, each team will bat for 50 overs, or 300 balls. Matches last for around eight hours.

Twenty20, the most pacey version of international cricket, is also one innings a side. In matches not affected by rain, each team bats for 20 overs (120 balls), which is where the name “Twenty20” comes from. Matches last for around three hours. The format was first introduced in 2003.

What are the rules of T20 cricket? How many players are on a cricket team?

Each team is made up of 11 playing team members, including one person to keep wicket (analogous to a catcher in baseball or softball, the wicketkeeper is the person who receives the ball that is delivered from the bowler). A minimum of five bowlers must be on each team as no single player may bowl more than one-fifth of the scheduled innings (that is, four overs out of 20 if the match is not curtailed by rain). All 11 players on the team may bat.

Unlike its cousin bat-and-ball sport baseball, players who bat remain “in” until they are out, meaning each player will only bat once per game. As the game is limited by the number of overs, some players may not get a chance to bat.

A team will score runs for each physical run the two batters make along the wicket, except if the ball has crossed the playing boundary: four runs if this happens along the ground, and six runs if this happens in the air without the ball touching the ground.

At the end of the 20 overs, or if a team has lost 10 wickets (meaning only one player of the 11 is left “not out”), the team’s innings is closed and the number of runs totalled is the team’s score. The other team then has 20 overs (or 10 wickets) to catch that total. If they do so, they win; otherwise the first team is the winner.

Where did T20 cricket originate from?

Cricket has been played for hundreds of years. The first 'Laws of Cricket' were formulated in 1744.

By contrast, the T20 format is the new kid on the block but like its predecessor it also originated from England.

Although a shortened form of the game was played in New Zealand during the 1990s, it was in 2003 that the official rules for T20 cricket were created by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

A new dawn for the game began on the 17th June 2003, when the first ever T20 match took place at The Rose Bowl between Hampshire Hawks and Sussex Sharks.

The first T20 International match was played between England women and New Zealand women at Hove in August 2004. The first men's international contest was between Australia and New Zealand six months later.

Which are the big T20 cricket international teams?

Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and Zimbabwe are the 12 so-called “Full Member” nations of the International Cricket Council.

The West Indies is a composite representative team, with 12 different National Olympic Committees represented as part of the West Indies Cricket Board. England participates in Olympic events as part of the British Olympic Association, while Cricket Ireland covers an area represented by both the BOA and the Olympic Federation of Ireland.

Other nations in the top 20 of the T20 world rankings (as of 8 September 2023) include Namibia, Scotland (part of Great Britain), the United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Nepal, Hong Kong China, Canada, and Oman on the men’s side and Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Scotland (part of Great Britain), UAE, Netherlands, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Nepal on the women’s side.

How many teams will take part in T20 cricket at LA28?

The exact format of the competition, including the number of teams that will take part and how qualification will be managed, will be announced in due course.

What other international T20 cricket tournaments are there?

International T20 cricket’s top global event are the ICC T20 World Cup and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, currently held every two years.

T20 cricket is also an event at the multi-sport Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Pacific Games, Southeast Asian Games, and (as of 2024) African Games.