Australia could soon fight for T20 gold as cricket’s shortest form gains Olympic momentum
AUSTRALIA could soon be able to fight for Olympic T20 gold after the largest cricket survey ever done revealed it as the favourite form of the game and the version fans want to see in the Olympics.
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AUSTRALIA could soon be able to fight for Olympic T20 gold after the largest cricket survey ever done revealed it had usurped all others as the favourite form of the game and the version fans want to see in the Olympics.
Australia, second on the ICC T20 team rankings, can move closer to being the best team in the world and gold medal favourites for the Olympics as soon as Paris in 2024 where the International Cricket Council will push for cricket’s inclusion.
More than 19,000 people around the world took part in the survey which backed up anecdotal evidence, fuelled by the explosion of domestic T20 competitions around the world like the new Global T20 in Canada where banned Aussies Steve Smith and David Warner will play, that the shortest form of the game had the most appeal.
There are currently 17 countries on the ICC’s T20 team rankings, including Hong Kong and Oman, and 62 countries, form Denmark to Samoa entered qualifying for the 2020 T20 world cup in Australia, showing the game’s global footprint and Olympic worthiness.
Australia can go to number one on those ICC T20 rankings with not just a win over England but victories over top ranked Pakistan and also Zimbabwe, who are ranked 12th, in the African nation next week.
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Glenn Maxwell is the top ranked all-rounder in world T20 cricket and the third best batsmen and will play for Australia in Birmingham in a bid to rescue something from the tour of England.
The Aussies spent the best part of an hour on Tuesday whacking balls in to the grandstands at Edgbaston in a display of power hitting that was sadly absent in the 5-0 one-day series loss.
But their minds have been freed up returning to a format where the players, particularly guys like Big Bash leading run scorer D’Arcy Short, feel incredibly comfortable.
Maxwell was among the big hitters having missed the final to ODIs with shoulder injury and his inclusion is crucial after his man of the series effort in Australia’s T20 clean sweep of England and New Zealand in February.
Aaron Finch will captain the side but doesn’t see it as audition for the one-day role given Tim Paine is highly unlikely to continue in the role when Australia next plays a 50-over game in November. Coach Justin Langer confirmed as much on Melbourne radio on Wednesday.
But Finch has far more immediate concerns, and that’s finding some spark for a team which has one final chance to fire a shot against the old enemy.
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“I’ve been T20 captain before so going into a one-off game and then a tri-series I think it’s just really important we start to nail down some continuity in our team and start to really make sure we’re looking with one eye to the World T20 in (October) 2020,” Finch said.
“That’ll be an opportunity for us to really start nutting out the way that we want to play and probably a 15-17 man squad that will carry us forward through that time. Definitely no auditioning or anything like that at all, it’s just about trying to stay as high as we can in the rankings and keep pressing really hard in this format.
“If the opportunity (to be captain) came up it would be an honour. I’ve lead the one-day side a couple of times before, I had the T20 role a few years back. It’s nothing that I’ve ever thought about.
“Tim is the captain and did a great job throughout the series. It was disappointing that we didn’t back-up his leadership as well as we could have with our performance. We just let ourselves slip a couple of times. Onto this format and we’re really excited.”
Originally published as Australia could soon fight for T20 gold as cricket’s shortest form gains Olympic momentum