Los Angeles [US], July 16 (ANI): Six teams each in the men's and women's categories are set to battle for medals in an upcoming tournament. With 90 athlete quotas allocated for each tournament, participating nations can name squads of up to 15 members.

Following the announcement of the confirmed number of teams and the venue for LA28 back in April, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that the T20 competitions for the men's and women's categories at LA28 will run from July 12 to July 29, 2028.

The medal matches will be held on 20 July (women's) and 29 July (men's) respectively.

The announcement marks another landmark moment for the sport, which will be making its second-ever Olympic appearance - 128 years after its debut in Paris 1900, when Great Britain claimed gold in a one-off match against France.

All matches will be staged at the Pomona Fairplex, about 50 km from downtown Los Angeles.

The format includes double-headers on most matchdays, with fixtures beginning at 9:00 AM and 6:30 PM local time.

The return of cricket to the Olympics signals another major step forward in the sport's global expansion, and to celebrate the game on one of the world's biggest sporting stages.

The mode of qualification for the LA28 Olympic Games is yet to be confirmed, but will likely be discussed during the ICC's Annual Conference in Singapore starting on July 17.

This is only the second time the sport has made an appearance at the Olympics since 1900. Back then, only two teams, Great Britain and France, had played a two-day match, with the former winning the gold medal.

Cricket's inclusion in the Olympics demonstrates its growing popularity, with women's cricket making its Commonwealth Games debut in 2022 at Birmingham. Meanwhile, both men's and women's cricket have been part of the Asian Games programme since 2010, 2014, and 2023.

Recently, during the ICC T20 World Cup last year, the USA co-hosted the event along with the West Indies, with Grand Prairie, Lauderhill, and New York hosting a number of matches. The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York also hosted one of the biggest cricketing fixtures of the tournament, the clash between Asian arch-rivals India and Pakistan. (ANI)