{"id":892413,"date":"2026-09-15T03:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T03:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892413\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T03:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T03:20:12","slug":"cricket-2026-australian-greats-react-to-steve-smiths-retirement-call-ambition-to-play-t20-at-the-olympic-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892413\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket 2026: Australian greats react to Steve Smith\u2019s retirement call, ambition to play T20 at the Olympic Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian great Jeff Thomson was blunt when asked about the future of the nation\u2019s Test team in the post Steve Smith era.<\/p>\n

Questions as to how long Smith will continue his decorated career are again on the radar after the champion said in an interview in Europe that he was not certain whether he would feature in next year\u2019s Ashes series.<\/p>\n

Get all the latest cricket news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That would be a significant problem according to Thompson and fellow Aussie icon Doug Walters, who were discussing life after Smith and the problems that his retirement would raise at the SCG just a week ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019d be in trouble if he retired next week. I mean, I can\u2019t think of too many more batters in the side,\u201d Thomson told foxsports.com.au <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is he? 37? And I mean, he\u2019s the one holding us together. I mean, where our young blokes coming through? <\/p>\n

\u201cSmithy\u2019s done a great job over the years, for me. I\u2019ve seen play for a long time and he\u2019s a proper tradesman, you know, not a cowboy batter. That\u2019s how I\u2019d describe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Australian captain, who is currently playing in a T20 competition in Europe for the Amsterdam Flames, stressed once again that a primary ambition late in his career is to feature in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

As for Test cricket, where he has burnished a reputation as being the \u201cbest since Bradman\u201d in some quarters, the Australian No.4 said that he would reconsider his future at the end of each series in what shapes as a taxing 12 months for the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know if I\u2019ll be there yet,\u201d he told The Telegraph in London about his Ashes plans. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m kind of a series-by-series proposition, as I\u2019ve been for a while, and that\u2019s still a fair way away for me right now. So, yeah, I\u2019d love to win one there or to have won one there, but you wait and see if that comes to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments by Smith are timely given Australia is about to embark on a tour of South Africa, with a home series against New Zealand to follow prior to a five Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India prior to the 150th anniversary Test against England at the MCG in mid-March. <\/p>\n

That is a lot of cricket for any player, let alone a man closer to 40 than 30 and one who is carrying the nation on his blade, according to Walters, along with Australia\u2019s outstanding attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got concerns with him in the side, so we\u2019re going to have a lot more concerns when he does depart, there\u2019s no doubt about that,\u201d Walters said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t find his technique in any batting manual, but if they\u2019re going to rewrite one, they\u2019ll have to put a chapter on his batting there somewhere. He is different, but he is very effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith has raised questions about how long he wants to continue for in the past, including when he surpassed Don Bradman\u2019s mark of 30 Test centuries back in 2023 in a Test against South Africa at the SCG.<\/p>\n

After saying he was not sure how \u201clong it will last\u201d, which followed an interview with The Daily Telegraph in which he said he was \u201ccloser to the end than the start\u201d, he clarified with Fox Cricket that he would continue on<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always very cryptic with that (retirement) stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Of more certainty is his desire to chase an Olympic gold medal in the US, where he lives when not playing for Australia or featuring in franchise cricket. <\/p>\n

The New York-based champion would need to force his way into the T20 team, which is no certainty, as demonstrated by his late inclusion in the World Cup team in February despite an outstanding campaign in Australia in the BBL.<\/p>\n

That team failed to produce anywhere near its best when failing to make it out of the group stage and Australia is experimenting with younger talents in white ball cricket with the ODI World Cup next year preceding the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Scrambling. Steve Smith dives to save his wicket during the recent Test series against Bangladesh.Source: AFP<\/p>\n

Smith will be 39 when the Olympics are held but he said the reason he was playing so much T20 cricket was to ensure he was sharp for the format.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now probably it\u2019s just the Olympics to try to be a part of that,\u201d Smith told the London-based paper. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons why I wanted to play with Amsterdam here was just to continue playing as much T20 cricket as I can. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was keen immediately to come and play in a new market and, hopefully, share some experiences with the local players and associate players: share a dressing room with them and try to impart some of my knowledge on to them. It\u2019s been really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia currently sit third in the ICC World T20 rankings behind India and England, with New Zealand sitting a close fourth.<\/p>\n

That is important as the qualification spots for the six nation tournament are based on geographical location, with the top-ranked nations from Oceania, Europe, Asia and Africa competing alongside the US as host nation, along with one qualifier.<\/p>\n

While the Australian women have already qualified alongside Great Britain, India and South Africa, the men\u2019s cut-off date is December 31 this year and the Aussies are battling with New Zealand for direct qualification.<\/p>\n

Australia will play five T20 games against England, which have been in outstanding form, in late November beginning with a match at the MCG on November 21. Games will also be played on the Gold Coast, Brisbane, the SCG and Canberra. <\/p>\n

New Zealand will host India for five T20 matches as part of an extended all-format tour in October and November preceding their visit to Australia for four Tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian great Jeff Thomson was blunt when asked about the future of the nation\u2019s Test team in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-892413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892413","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=892413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}