LA28 Qualification Process Decided: Bad News for India-Pakistan Rivalry

After a long wait of 128 years, cricket is finally returning to the Olympics in 2028. Los Angeles is set to host the Olympics in 2028, which will feature cricket for the first time since 1900. However, the International Olympic Committee decided to make it a 6-team tournament, so the qualification process has been quite critical for the ICC.

Moreover, the USA team is likely to get the ticket qualified as they have the status of the host nation. Other than them, five more spots remain empty for the qualification. While it is a tough job for the ICC to decide the teams, they have opted to use the regional qualifying format favoured by the Olympic movement.

This ensures that all parts of the world are represented at the Games, so it is a truly global event. This means that Pakistan are most likely to miss out on playing at the LA28 Olympics.

What is LA28 Olympics Cricket Qualification Process?

In the annual general meeting in Singapore this month, the ICC decided to use a system of regional qualifying. As per the decision, the top-ranked team in Asia, Oceania, Europe, and Africa will qualify automatically, along with the USA, which would represent the Americas. That would have implications for West Indian islands hoping to compete.

As per the ICC rankings, India, Australia, South Africa, and Great Britain are the LA28 Olympics Cricket qualification teams along with the hosts. India LA28 Olympics cricket qualification is a great news for the fans in the country as cricket is highly popular. Moreover, one of the Caribbean nations is likely to replace the USA if its governance issues are not resolved soon. The governing body asked the US Cricket's Board to resign this month and sort out their issues.

Pakistan, New Zealand Unhappy With ICC

Moreover, Pakistan and New Zealand are unhappy with the ICC’s decision. Because of the rankings and the regional qualifying, both the teams are likely to miss the Olympics. While the decision of the governing body isn't concrete yet, the chances of changing it are less. Qualification for the Olympic women’s tournament will be decided by the T20 World Cup next year.

England are staging the event, so Team GB are in a good position to qualify and would expect to reach the semi-finals at a minimum. If everything goes well, the ICC will go for bigger tournaments in the future, like the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games, and that cause would be helped if Ahmedabad wins the right to stage the Olympics four years later.

ECB to Form Great Britain Cricket Team

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has decided to form a separate entity called Great Britain Cricket (GB) to participate in the 2028 Olympics. They have had advanced negotiations with Cricket Scotland about forming the entity to manage everything around the Olympics. A memorandum of understanding with Cricket Ireland is also being worked on that would allow Northern Irish cricketers to be eligible for Team GB.

It is to be noted that athletes from England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland compete together for one nation known as Great Britain in the Olympics. The norm is the same in other Olympic sports like Football and Hockey as well. A similar team of Great Britain, which will comprise teams from England, Scotland, and Ireland.

In the coming months, we will get to see the Great Britain cricket team. After being constituted, they would need to be officially recognised by the ICC and the British Olympic Association. Only then will they be considered a full member of the National Olympic Committee.