Olympics under threat after T20 World Cup disaster

Australia’s pursuit of a place in cricket’s Olympics return in 2028 is in serious doubt after their disastrous T20 World Cup performance.

Last played in the 1900 games in Paris, Cricket returns for the 2028 Los Angeles games with six nations competing in the T20 format for both men’s and women’s.

While Australia’s women look certain to feature as the top-ranked nation in the format, it’s not a done deal for the men.

As things stand, one team from each of the five Olympic Ring areas (Africa, Americas, Asia, Oceania and Europe) plus hosts USA will feature in 2028.

While Australia is currently ranked third in the world in men’s T20 cricket, its Oceania rivals New Zealand sit one spot behind them in fourth.

According to The Age’s Daniel Brettig, the Aussies could lose their automatic qualifying spot should the Kiwis pass them on the rankings after the World Cup.

“It's suffice to say that they're still trying to figure it out. Both Australia and New Zealand yesterday, when I contacted both boards, were saying that ‘We think there's a chance of New Zealand getting past Australia’,” Brettig told SEN Whateley.

“It throws Australia's automatic qualification for the Olympics into grave doubt, because then they’d be tossed into a qualifying tournament with a bunch of second-placed teams in the five continental regions.

“There are a couple of caveats I should add to this. The process has been agreed to by the ICC, but it’s still awaiting final approval at the IOC.

“It's one of those things where calculators are being used, when certainly in Australia's case, they went into this World Cup not thinking it was going to be an issue.

“It tells you how badly they've mucked up this one to not even get to the Super 8s.”

For Australia, Brettig thinks missing out would be a massive ‘slap in the face’ given Cricket Australia were the biggest advocate for cricket returning to the Olympics among the sport’s power nations.

“They were a huge mover in it over a long period of time,” Brettig said.

“If you go back nearly 20 years now, there was a paper written up by Cricket Australia to go to the ICC saying all the reasons why this would be a great idea, and in particular to do it in the T20 format.

“If you think of the big three nations in Australia, India, and England, Australia were definitely the biggest advocates for cricket in the Olympics, and it was essentially getting over the objections of England who were feared losing some time in their home summer and of India who had some issues in terms of the relationship between the BCCI and the Indian Olympic Association.

“Those had to be overcome before we get to cricket at LA in 28.

“It would be a huge slap in the face in terms of something that Australia has pushed for.”

Missing out could also throw the futures of some of Australia’s greats into doubt, with Steve Smith admitting he’d like to play on until he’s 39 to achieve his Olympic dream.

“Think about Steve Smith living in New York and saying quite often he'd love to be part of the Australian team playing in the Olympics,” Brettig said.

“At the moment, he's a squad player in the T20 team… and Pat Cummins is another who said he’d love to play for Australia at the Olympics.

“It’s interesting in a format where Australia has got a really speckled record, the Olympics look like a real carrot for players to vie for.

“Now they’ve left Cricket Australia wondering what they might need to do to get there.”