NEW DELHI: In a bid to capitalise on China's renewed interest in cricket following the sport's Olympic inclusion, ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta says the world body would support the national association in staging a Tier 2 event soon besides assisting with setting up a Centre of Excellence in the country.

In an exclusive interview to PTI, Gupta said making cricket more accessible, and promoting the women's game are also part of the expansion plans. The possibilities are enormous if the ICC is able to gain a stronghold in China whose massive population rivals the game's behemoth India.

The ICC is already working with its member, the Chinese Cricket Association (CCA), to set up a centre of excellence on the lines of the ICC Academy in Dubai, said Gupta, who took charge in July.

"The CCA has expressed a strong desire to institute, with ICC's support, a centre of excellence, along the lines of the ICC Academy in the UAE, to fast-track player development and enhance facilities available for high-performance programs," said Gupta.

"Strategic support from the ICC could also motivate the General Administration of Sport in China (GASC) to take more active interest in the development of the sport," he added.

Majority of cricket fans live in South Asia but the sport making a comeback to the Olympics after 128 years gives national bodies like CCA a chance to introduce the sport in mainstream platforms – the National Games in China's case.

"Cricket's return to the Olympic Games at LA28 is changing the context in which the sport is viewed in markets that have ignored or not developed consideration for it," Gupta said.

"Olympic inclusion gives cricket greater relevance within institutional sporting systems and can open the door to greater government attention, investment, infrastructure and player development. We are already seeing these dynamics play out in markets such as China," he reasoned.

Out of the 22 provinces in China, cricket has a presence in nine and it is bound to increase if the sport enters the National Games. The sport being played regularly in Asian Games has also helped.

"The Asian Games have also given cricket meaningful visibility in China, particularly following the Hangzhou Games in 2022, and deeper integration into the country's domestic sporting structure would be a significant step. Cricket's inclusion in China's National Games could supercharge the momentum," said Gupta.

"This is how you begin to embed a sport more deeply into the system - by creating pathways, encouraging provinces to invest, developing coaches and facilities, making the sport more visible and ultimately giving more young people the opportunity to play," he said.

Women's cricket is being used aggressively to spread the game in the country with CCA remarkably having a policy of 50 percent inclusion of females in all its programs.

"China is an important geography for cricket, both as a market and a participating nation, especially in women's cricket because of the sheer scale that it offers. Securing attention, and hopefully affiliation, of even a segment of the available audience in China can significantly bolster cricket's global fandom.

"We will need a multi-dimensional approach in the country, with viewership, participation and cultural connections driving our ambition to see cricket develop cultivable green shoots," the CEO pointed out.

A 1500 capacity cricketing venue was recently launched in China and now the ICC is keen on hosting a Tier 2 event with CCA's support.

"The Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) is striving to develop and upgrade infrastructure with the ambition of hosting an ICC Tier 2 event in the near future. The staging of the event will be a strong signal to the government machinery of both the ICC's resolve to grow the sport in China and the support the CCA can receive if it is ambitious about the prospects of the sport," said Gupta.

"A significant driver of cricket's growth, and particularly the institutional support it receives in many countries, will be its inclusion in select multi-sport events, at regional, sub-regional and national levels. This is especially true for sporting cultures which celebrate medals more than cups or trophies, with government commitments playing a driving role."

Gupta spent some time in China soon after joining ICC and he was pleasantly surprised at what he saw on the ground.

"I spent 10 days in China inside the first six months of my stint at the ICC, and I was surprised by cricket's entrenched presence in certain provinces. I sensed a growing commitment from provincial and local authorities towards adoption of the sport.

"We also received commitments for programmes to be launched in schools across provinces such as Shandong and Tianjin. The immediate goal of both the ICC and the CCA is to have cricket included in China's National Games, which will give the sport national prominence and drive adoption of the sport across provinces," said Gupta.

The ICC streamed both the 2026 Men's and Women's T20 World Cup in Mandarin on Chinese platforms, another clear indicator of its commitment to grow the sport in the country.

The men's T20 showpiece generated 4.4 million video views in the final week of the competition.

The ICC's funding to the CCA has totalled more than USD 1.5 million over the past five years. CCA's revenue generation on its own has been impressive and it reported the highest non-ICC income among all associate members in 2024.