Team GB to be guaranteed place in men's T20 cricket at 2028 Olympics
The controversial decision is understood to have sparked a backlash from Pakistan and New Zealand, who are set to miss out on cricket's return to the Olympics after 128 years, with India and Australia to be awarded spots from Asia and Oceania respectively based on the ICC rankings. The IOC favour regional qualifying to ensure all parts of the world are represented at the Games so it is a truly global event.
With cricket's Olympic return limited to two six-team Twenty20 tournaments, qualification had been expected to be tightly contested, particularly with the United States in line to be given an automatic place as hosts.
Following discussions at their AGM in Singapore earlier this month, the ICC decided to use a system of regional qualifying. It has been proposed that the top-ranked team in Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa qualify automatically alongside the USA, who would represent the Americas, which would have implications for the West Indian islands hoping to compete.
Based on the current ICC rankings India, Australia, South Africa and Great Britain would qualify with the hosts, with the mechanism for determining the final place yet to be decided.
One of the Caribbean nations could replace USA if their governance issues are not resolved after the ICC called on USA Cricket's Board to resign earlier this month. The Guardian has been told that Pakistan and New Zealand are unhappy with the ICC's decision, but while it has yet to be ratified by the Board it is unlikely to be reversed, according to sources present in Singapore.
New Zealand are fourth in the ICC's T20 rankings, narrowly behind third-placed England, but are set to miss out as Australia are second. USA are ranked 17th despite reaching the Super 8 stage at last year's World Cup, which they co-hosted with West Indies.
Qualification for the Olympic women's tournament will be decided by next year's T20 World Cup. Given England are staging the event Team GB are in a good position to qualify, as Charlotte Edwards' side would expect to reach the semi-finals at a minimum.
Cricket has not featured at the Olympics since 1900 – Great Britain's men beat France in a one-off match for the gold medal – but has been confirmed as part of the schedule for LA, with the games to be staged in Pomona, California, 30 miles east of the city.
If successful, the ICC will lobby for bigger tournaments at the Brisbane Games in 2032 and their cause would be helped if Ahmedabad win the right to stage the Olympics four years later. Doha, Istanbul and Santiago are the other confirmed bidders for the 2036 Games.
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The England and Wales Cricket Board has already begun setting up a Great Britain team, and is in advanced negotiations with Cricket Scotland about creating a new entity to manage the Olympic process, GB Cricket. A memorandum of understanding with Cricket Ireland is also being worked on that would allow Northern Irish cricketers to be eligible for Team GB.
GB Cricket is expected to be officially constituted in the coming months. It would then need to be officially recognised by the ICC and the British Olympic Association (BOA) before becoming full members of the National Olympic Committee (NOC).
The ICC declined to comment.
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The Independent
4 minutes ago
- The Independent
England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick left unimpressed with India's tactics
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BBC News
34 minutes ago
- BBC News
'Part of the plan' to disrupt Root, says Krishna
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Tensions have been high throughout the series, which the hosts lead 2-1, but are in a tricky situation with India taking a 52-run lead into day three with eight wickets in hand after England dropped three catches late on. Before this Test match started, India coach Gautam Gambhir was involved in a confrontation with The Oval's ground staff, skipper Shubman Gill accused England of going against the spirit of cricket with time-wasting tactics and seamer Mohammed Siraj was fined for his send-off of Ben Duckett during the third Test at Lord' was involved in another strange incident before Krishna's encounter with Root, as Akash Deep dismissed him for 43 and put his arm around the England opener's shoulder as he walked from the pitch. "I don't think I've ever seen a bowler do that after getting someone out," said England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick. "You've seen them having words, we've seen it from both sides in this series. It was just different. 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Jamie Overton, 31, came in as England were forced into bowling changes because of a shoulder injury to captain Ben Stokes, and with Brydon Carse and Jofra Archer needing to rest, but he has played only four first-class matches since September took 0-66 in India's first innings, made a duck and is so far wicketless for 22 runs from five overs - though the Sudharsan drop came off his bowling."The only thing I'd say on England's selection is they've picked people who have played no cricket and to throw them into this hot bed of international cricket, in front of this amount of people and so many watching on TV screens around the world, it isn't an easy game. "It is no surprise they that looked a bit vulnerable out there - because if you're not going to play cricket, you're not going to have your body used to playing cricket."If you're throwing a 21-year-old into this situation on the back of one first-class match in our summer, I find that absolutely extraordinary. I don't think you're giving a kid the best chance of succeeding at this level." Are England or India on top? Vaughan added that India were just in front of England in terms of the match position, and former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta was in agreement."At the end of the day its going to be about pressure and so far in this series this India side have handled pressure well, and it's been a long tour - one more innings to go. You have to keep everything else away and just bat normally."The pitch will get better, it's just about how you handle it. At Lords, it wasn't handled well, at Old Trafford it was handled very well by India." Meanwhile former England captain Sir Alastair Cook said: "I am going England as favourites. On the basis that everyone tells me that the wicket gets better on day three or four."
Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Brittle England batsmen fail to grind out ugly runs
Already, ahead of this winter's Ashes, this England team had been hailed as 'the most imposing' batting line-up they have sent to tour Australia. Not any more they won't, not after they lost seven wickets in an afternoon session that was only slightly extended. India's seamers reacted well after they had been thoroughly trashed before lunch by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett: they pitched the ball fuller and got more out of the pitch than England, as they have done for much of the summer except when Ben Stokes has been bowling. Nevertheless, the image that England wanted to take to Australia, of being a 'most imposing' batting line-up, evaporated in the time it took for them to descend from 129 for one to 247 all out with the series on the line. The opening partnership by Crawley and Duckett was dazzling, even by their audacious standards, and threw India completely off their lengths. All that the rest of England's batsmen had to do was to keep out India's seamers – only three of them – until they had tired, and the tourists had to bring on their spinners. An Indian spinner duly emerged after 39 overs, but by then England had lost five wickets and let India back into the game. The lecture delivered over lunch by Professor Morne Morkel, India's bowling coach, must have been an impressive one. The three seamers did not even have to get the ball changed to expose what has lurked beneath the surface of this England side: a brittleness, a reluctance to grind it out and accumulate ugly runs. Since the last Oval Test, less than a year ago against Sri Lanka, England have been dismissed in fewer than 40 overs four times. On this occasion England lasted 51.1 overs, which forced Gus Atkinson and the two surviving seamers to go again, morning and evening. No country has made so many runs in a five-Test series in England as this India side: Jamie Smith has therefore had an enormous task as England's wicketkeeper in the first four Tests of this series but above all in this fifth Test, because Josh Tongue and Jamie Overton have sent Smith diving all over the shop. It was a tired dab with his bat at a 45-degree angle, when Sky Sports's experts had been preaching that the bat had to be either vertical or horizontal on this lively pitch. Why Overton was selected in the first place is a question that could be raised in the House – because he might touch 90mph in a Test this winter? Or because England think he is a useful No 8? Either way, after the call-up of Liam Dawson for the Old Trafford Test instead of Jack Leach, here is an echo of the old days when England's selectors opted for 'bits-and-pieces' players and for bowlers on the grounds that they could bat a bit. It is inexplicable that two bang-it-in bowlers were selected for an Oval green-top in Overton and Tongue. Tongue has worked hard for his place, and he showed at the start of India's second innings that he is no one-trick pony and can pitch the ball up. But if any Overton was to be selected, it should have been the other twin. Jamie has taken two wickets for 164 runs, and had three innings, for Surrey in the championship this season; Craig has taken 27 wickets and had 10 innings for Somerset. Jacob Bethell looked strange when he walked out in white clothes, as if they were borrowed. And since last Christmas he has played one first-class match – one red-ball game, that is, for Warwickshire. He looked a little rusty; he did not read the red ball that Mohammed Siraj swung into him. Bethell, Smith and Overton were blown away at the time when the ball was softening, and when Harry Brook required a partner to stay in. When England last won an Ashes series in Australia, back in 2010-11, their batting line-up consisted of Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook, both to be knighted, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood and Matt Prior. When England toured Australia in 1928-9, their top four batsmen had either reached the landmark of one hundred first-class centuries or were soon to reach it, while another couple of their batsmen scored one hundred first-class centuries but were only selected for one Test each. Time will soon tell how imposing the line-up of this current England side will prove to be. I suspect they will be imposing in their audacity – when the going is good.
