England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Scotland have reached an agreement to form the GB Cricket Team for the LA 2028 Olympics. While England’s men’s and women’s teams will compete for ICC rankings, the GB Cricket Team will have cricketers from England and Scotland. Cricket will return to Olympics after 128 years. However, considering England is represented at the Olympics as Team Great Britain, England cricket would have missed out.
While GB Cricket also wants Northern Ireland to be part of the Olympic entity, it is unlikely that Cricket Ireland will follow suit. But the likes of Paul Stirling and Andy McBrine, among others, will be eligible for GB Cricket as they are from Northern Ireland, as per ESPN Cricinfo. At present, Cricket Ireland represents both Ireland and Northern Ireland cricketers and is also a full ICC member. The ECB and Cricket Scotland will sign an MOU (memorandum of understanding).
The International Olympic Committee has already sought clarity on Team Great Britain for LA28 Olympics.
GB Cricket needs ICC’s nod
However, forming the team alone won’t guarantee GB Cricket a spot in the LA 2028 Olympics. The International Cricket Council must approve the new body to form a team. Furthermore, the new entity must be approved by the British Olympic Association (BOA) to become a full member of National Olympic Committee.
England’s new white-ball captain Harry Brook is already excited at the idea. But he is not mulling over the team composition yet, as the next Olympics is three years away.
“That would be pretty cool to be able to play in the Olympics and get an Olympic gold medal. But it’s so far away, it’s miles away yet. I haven’t even thought about that yet,” Harry Brook said ahead of the ENG vs WI series.
Olympics cricket qualification TBD
There is still no discussion on the qualification criteria for a six-team Olympic cricket tournament. There is no space in the calendar for an Olympic qualification tournament. Hence, the ICC could make it an invitation-only event or base the qualification on T20I rankings. The Caribbean islands are ready to play an inter-island tournament to make a call on the team. England and the West Indies — two cricket teams — are facing a crisis as both teams can’t qualify for the Olympics as they are not recognised National Olympic Committee.
However, it should be noted that USA, being the official host of the Olympics, would be guaranteed a spot. That would leave space for only five teams. India, Pakistan and Australia are three favourites to make the Olympics, considering the popularity of the sport in these two nations. But the likes of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa are not far behind either.
“There is a lot of time to decide on the qualification criteria. It’s not the top priority at the moment. But you are right, it will be difficult since cricket does not follow a straightforward qualification tournament like other sports. All the stakeholders will be part of the discussion when the time comes,” a senior BCCI official, who is also a member of the ICC committee, told InsideSport last month.
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