00:00Cricket is being reintroduced at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and with the
00:05new West Indies breakout T20 league taking place in April, Canuck Secretary
00:09General Brian Lewis sees this tournament as a step in the right direction in
00:13identifying talent ahead of the summer games in the USA and he says no one
00:18should write of the Caribbean country which ends up representing the West
00:21Indies in LA. The reality is that given the history of cricket the talent that
00:28has been produced in the in the Caribbean there is a realistic chance
00:36that once proper focus and attention and a strategy is put in place that the
00:45Caribbean team whichever team qualifies to represent the West Indies at the Los
00:53Angeles Olympics 2026 T20 tournament that team will have a realistic
01:01opportunity of winning gold. Lewis expects many doubting Thomas's to
01:06question his comment on a cricket goal for the Caribbean however he uses the
01:11analogy of a David versus Goliath situation from another sport. Anyone
01:15doubting the realistic gold medal chances of a Caribbean team whichever
01:23one qualifies to represent the West Indies in LA you know there are those
01:30who may question how realistic it is to aspire to that I would put forward the
01:37example of Fiji a small island nation that punched above its weight and won the
01:48gold medal when rugby sevens was introduced to the Olympic Games and in
01:53fact Fiji won it in two Olympic cycles. Lewis says Canuck has fully supported
01:59cricket being a part of the Olympics as such Canuck has been in constant
02:03communication with other sporting bodies. Canuck is working closely with
02:07cricket West Indies and the Pan Am sports in terms of cricket on the Pan Am
02:16Games so from a Canuck perspective which is the Caribbean Association of National
02:21Olympic Committee the T20 cricket debut on the Los Angeles Olympics is an
02:29exciting occasion and you know as we said Canuck believes it is a unique
02:39opportunity for Caribbean nation to create history in a team sport. Also
02:48echoing similar sentiments is Canuck president Keith Joseph who says quote
02:51Canuck therefore urges our members to add cricket as one of our team sports at
02:57which we can have great impact on the shaping of the sport ecosystem across
03:01the Americas positively contributing to individual community national and global
03:06development unquote. Vinod Nawani TV6 sport
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