\u201cMy understanding is head office is still working through exactly what it means, so until we get specifics, that\u2019s down the path for us,\u201d selector on duty Tony Dodemaide said.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s 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. \u201cWe always presumed that would be us,\u201d said an NZ Cricket official.<\/p>\n
The Olympics will also host a six-team women\u2019s event, with Australia to contest the T20 World Cup in England later this year.<\/p>\n
Missing qualification for the Olympics would be a disaster for the Australian men\u2019s team, after years of advocacy by Cricket Australia for sport\u2019s inclusion in the global sporting jamboree.<\/p>\n
Steve Smith and Pat Cummins are among numerous Australian cricketers who have expressed a strong desire to be part of cricket\u2019s Olympics return, more than a century after its sole appearance at the Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main goal is to get in the team when the Olympics is rolling around,\u201d Smith said recently. \u201cI\u2019d be keen to do that. That\u2019d be pretty cool. So, keep doing what I\u2019m doing and you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Opposition from England and India was ultimately turned around for cricket\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThose 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\u2019s largest sports event in global sport\u2019s biggest market,\u201d said Phillip Pope, author of the 2007 CA report.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s failed campaign will end with a game against Oman \u2013 also already eliminated from the tournament \u2013 in the early hours of Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re disappointed with the way the tournament has rolled out, but we will take some time once we finish our last commitment,\u201d Dodemaide said. \u201cWe want to win every World Cup, no matter where it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMy understanding is head office is still working through exactly what it means, so until we get specifics,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-488043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}