Cricket was last played at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games, with Great Britain and France as the sole participants. After 128 years, Cricket is set to return to the LA28 Olympic Games. The tournament is expected to follow the exciting and shorter T20 format, with the men’s and women’s competitions each having six participants. While cricket seeks out a new audience globally, marketing itself at the world’s largest sports event, major questions have arisen regarding the participation and governance of the various teams who could potentially compete.
What is T20 cricket?
Cricket is played in three different formats: Test cricket, one day cricket, and T20 cricket. Test cricket is the most traditional and exclusive format of the game, spanning up to 5 days. One day cricket shortened the sport to eight hours. However, T20 cricket, the most recent development of the game in the last two decades, has shortened the sport to only three hours. With T20 cricket, the sport has been revolutionized, creating a highly explosive version of the game more accessible to players and viewers alike, quickly expanding cricket’s global presence, as well as generating massive revenue for T20 cricket leagues around the world. The Indian Premier League, the top T20 cricket league in the world, is behind only the NFL for per-match value of all major global sports leagues. Other professional leagues such as the ILT20 in the UAE, SA20 in South Africa, Big Bash League in Australia, Pakistan Super League in Pakistan, and notably Major League Cricket in the United States earn millions of dollars in revenue and pack stadiums. Today, 108 countries have recognized T20 status, compared to the 12 countries authorized to play Test cricket. The rapid growth of T20 cricket has seen the T20 cricket world cup grow from 12 participants in the first edition in 2007 to 20 participants starting with the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA, continuing to the ongoing 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. Cricket is banking on this novel format to gain new appeal for the sport at the Olympics, particularly in front of an American audience at home.
How will the 6 participants in the men’s and women’s tournament be determined?
Host teams automatically qualify for the T20 World Cup, as well as several top ranked sides. However, remaining spots are determined by regional qualification tournaments. It is highly likely that a continental format, which is the practice of choosing the top team from each continent, will be adopted. At present, it is largely expected that India will represent Asia, South Africa will represent Africa, Australia will represent Oceania, and Great Britain, largely selecting from the England and Wales national team, will represent Europe. The United States will likely automatically qualify as the hosts, representing the Americas. The sixth spot is not clearly determined, but may go to the winners of a potential qualification tournament. A less likely possibility is North and South America each having a continental representative, in which case Guyana, a member nation of the West Indies, could potentially represent South America.
What are the major concerns?
No modern cricket tournament has been this small. Major cricket teams like New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka may potentially miss out due to competition from regional powerhouses Australia and India. If a qualification tournament is adopted, only one of these teams may potentially qualify for the Olympics. Australia’s surprisingly early exit from the ongoing T20 World Cup indicates that New Zealand may have a chance to qualify as the Oceania representative, but if they do it will be at the expense of one of the most decorated national cricket teams.
Afghanistan remains a dark horse as the sixth men’s team in a potential qualification tournament, but their Olympic prospects are complicated by the International Olympic Committee refusing to recognize the Taliban regime, which violates Olympic Charter demanding equal representation for women athletes. The Afghanistan men’s cricket team continues to play under the Islamic Republic’s flag in international cricket, in accordance with Olympic rules against the new Islamic Emirate flag of the Taliban, with implicit tolerance from the Taliban. There is also significant global debate in the cricket community over Afghan participation in international cricket itself, as women’s cricket is completely banned in the country.
England and Wales compete as the English national cricket team in international cricket, but for the Olympics they will have to combine with Scotland and Northern Ireland to field a Great Britain Cricket team. Scotland typically competes as its own national team, whereas Northern Ireland combines with the Republic of Ireland to field a united Irish team for international cricket. Thus, for the purpose of the Olympics, players from three different national teams may see themselves sharing a singular dressing room, although Northern Irish players face a dilemma.
The Good Friday Agreement (Belfast Agreement) of 1998 allows Northern Irish to choose to identify as either British, Irish, or both, while also allowing them to acquire either or both passports. Olympic Charter Rule 41 also enables Northern Irish athletes to compete for either nation based on their personal choice. However, choosing to represent Great Britain or Ireland is a deeply politicized choice, most notably displayed by star golfer Rory McIlroy’s uncomfortable dilemma of choosing to represent either Ireland or Great Britain in the 2016 summer olympics. This creates an uncomfortable choice for the several Northern Irish cricketers who represent Ireland. The Irish cricket team has traditionally had a disproportionately large share of Northern Irish cricketers. It is also unclear how many Irish and Scottish players will be selected, given that England and Wales alone are an international powerhouse, and are expected to form the bulk of the squad for the tournament.
An equally challenging, yet nearly polar opposite situation is set to take place in the Caribbean. The various nations and territories of the Caribbean have traditionally combined to form a singular international cricket team called the West Indies. While the West Indies have long been a major team in international cricket, they may be forced to compete as individual nations at the Olympics, which only recognizes National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and has largely narrowed the scope of recognized NOCs to sovereign nation-states. Further complicating the effort to promote a united West Indian team at the Olympics is the fact that the member nations and territories of the West Indies only unite for cricket, but compete individually for every other sport. If the West Indies are split and a singular national team is expected to represent South America, Guyana will likely qualify for the Olympics, particularly given that the Guyana Cricket Board gained Olympic affiliation as of February 2026.
For the first time ever, English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish players will play as a singular national side, while Jamaican, Bajan, Guyanese, Trinidadian, and Antiguan players will be split. This is unprecedented in international cricket.
Splitting the West Indies into individual nations is widely expected to severely weaken each team, potentially making the United States the strongest team from the Americas.
While the United States may be the strongest team from the Americas if the West Indies are split, their ability to compete amongst some of the strongest teams, remains debated. Unlike a relatively strong united West Indies team, the USA men’s cricket team, in spite of famous victories over Ireland, Bangladesh, and most notably Pakistan, are considered significantly weaker than their potential competitors in India, South Africa, Australia, and Great Britain. The gulf is even wider for the USA women’s team, which is not even ranked among the top 20 national teams, and yet may compete in place of New Zealand, who are the defending champions of the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup.
Governance issues have plagued USA Cricket for years, leading to frequent clashes with the International Cricket Council, global cricket’s main governing body. As recently as September 2025, the ICC suspended USA Cricket, the governing body of cricket in the United States. Furthermore, many American national team cricketers are yet to acquire American citizenship, which is not necessary to represent a team in international cricket, but will be to participate in the Olympics.
Conclusion
As global cricket returns to the Olympics 128 years later, major questions remain in regards to participation with significant debate over prioritizing regional representation vs selecting the top teams, as well as restructuring the way that international cricketing bodies, nations, and players see themselves for the purpose of the Olympics. Nonetheless, the return of cricket to the Olympics will be a massive boost for the sport, potentially fostering global growth and leading to more participants in the future.