Smith was never in frame for must-win Cup game, selector reveals
By Daniel Brettig
Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup pratfall in Sri Lanka risks costing it a place in cricket’s long-awaited return to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, as the selectors stood their ground on Steve Smith’s peripheral role at the tournament.
Smith was a late inclusion to the squad, but selector Tony Dodemaide confirmed there was never any consideration of picking him as a middle-order player for what was effectively an elimination game against Sri Lanka.
Steve Smith wants to play cricket at the Olympics, but he was on the sidelines as Australia lost games at the T20 World Cup that might jeopardise their qualification for the LA Games.Credit: AP
“We see him primarily at the top,” Dodemaide said of Smith. “That’s where he’s come into the squad; for cover of that area. He was only really available for game three, which was the game where we had our best performed pairing, [Mitch Marsh] and [Travis Head].
“If we got more moving parts and we had to think of things differently, that’s a different story. But Steve still retains his place as cover for that opening position.”
Having entered the tournament comfortably ahead of New Zealand in the world rankings that will determine automatic Olympics qualification places at the end of the Cup, Australia’s early elimination may have opened the door for the Black Caps to overtake them.
Based on ranking calculations that the competing teams were still looking into on Wednesday, the Black Caps may now be able to earn Olympics qualification by venturing to the semi-finals or beyond.
New Zealand have a strong track record of doing so, getting to at least the tournament semis in 2007, 2016, 2021 and 2022.
Should that eventuate, Australia would be tossed into a dog-eat-dog qualification tournament with multiple other second-ranked regional teams for the last place in the six-team men’s T20 event in LA. The Olympic rankings cut-off was recently agreed at ICC level to be the end of this World Cup, with final IOC approval still pending.
“My understanding is head office is still working through exactly what it means, so until we get specifics, that’s down the path for us,” selector on duty Tony Dodemaide said.
New Zealand’s cricketers are eager to make the most of the opportunity, having long resigned themselves to the prospect of facing the steep road to qualify from second spot in Oceania. “We always presumed that would be us,” said an NZ Cricket official.
The Olympics will also host a six-team women’s event, with Australia to contest the T20 World Cup in England later this year.
Missing qualification for the Olympics would be a disaster for the Australian men’s team, after years of advocacy by Cricket Australia for sport’s inclusion in the global sporting jamboree.
Steve Smith and Pat Cummins are among numerous Australian cricketers who have expressed a strong desire to be part of cricket’s Olympics return, more than a century after its sole appearance at the Games.
“My main goal is to get in the team when the Olympics is rolling around,” Smith said recently. “I’d be keen to do that. That’d be pretty cool. So, keep doing what I’m doing and you never know.”
Smith’s place at the tournament has been a matter of conjecture, after he was called up as a standby player and then added to the full squad in time for the critical game against Sri Lanka in Kandy, only to be left out once more. Dodemaide said that the selectors still considered him primarily a back-up opener in T20 cricket.
As far back as 2007, CA commissioned a report examining the value for cricket in the Olympics in T20 format, with the aim of getting it in by 2020.
Opposition from England and India was ultimately turned around for cricket’s inclusion to be green-lit for LA. It will then be played in Brisbane in 2032, while India remains a chance to host the Games in 2036.
“Those of us who spent 20 years against the odds getting cricket back into the Olympic program for the first time in over a century would regard it as mismanagement of epic proportions for Australia to fail to qualify for the world’s largest sports event in global sport’s biggest market,” said Phillip Pope, author of the 2007 CA report.
Australia’s failed campaign will end with a game against Oman – also already eliminated from the tournament – in the early hours of Saturday.
“We’re disappointed with the way the tournament has rolled out, but we will take some time once we finish our last commitment,” Dodemaide said. “We want to win every World Cup, no matter where it is.”
