Road to LA28 Olympics becomes clearer at ICC AGM, top teams likely to miss cut

Some progress seems to have been achieved, in relation to the LA28 cricket qualification process, at the ICC AGM in Singapore on Saturday. Even though the final decision would come out on Sunday, but a consensus seems to have been reached, as per a report in Forbes.

As expected, the regional rankings are to decide, which teams make the cut for the LA28 Olympics — that is to be held from July 12-29 in Pomona. So, that means only the top-ranked teams in Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa will automatically qualify for the event, while US, the hosts will represent the Americas. And the last spot will go to a qualifier, to be decided through a tournament.

The cut-off for the rankings is not yet revealed. So, in short, if India are ranked first, and Pakistan second in the ICC T20I rankings, on the discussed date, the neighbours will not make the cut — and vice versa. Effectively, that also means, some of the top teams will not be part of the Olympics for sure.

Yes, the teams missing out, will have a chance to play in the qualifier, but only one team goes through from there, and the competition will be tougher. To explain the point further — if New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan don’t qualify automatically, they will all be in qualifiers.

Lastly, for the West Indies, they will first have a tournament amongst themselves, and then the winner will play in a ICC qualifier event. What is also confirmed is, the T20 World Cup will determine the six spots in the women’s event. And it is not clear, if the USA will get an automatic qualification or not.