Australian captain Meg Lanning wants cricket in the Olympics after making it to the Commonwealth Games

As Australia prepares to go for Commonwealth Games gold, captain Meg Lanning has put an Olympic medal on her agenda.

Australian captain Meg Lanning can see cricket in the Olympics. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Australian captain Meg Lanning wants cricket to make the leap from the Commonwealth Games to the Olympics but concedes it may be after the World Cup-winning skipper is “finished up”.

The Aussies are gold medal favourites ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where women’s T20s are being played for the first time.

The International Cricket Council has formed a working party to bid for inclusion in the Olympics in time for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, and Lanning said it was a logical next step for the game.

“Cricket in the Olympics would be amazing. Especially for the game as well, to reach a new audience,” Lanning, who recently turned 30. told BBC Sport.

“It would allow different people to see the game and would really help the growth of it in other countries around the world and particularly for women.

“I‘m not really sure what it takes to get it into the Olympics, but from the perspective of players, it would be amazing. It‘s something I’d love to do, but I think if it was going to happen, it will probably be once I’ve finished up playing.”

Meg Lanning thinks Australia should be able to go for Olympics gold. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images

There’s every chance Lanning could still be playing for Australia in 2026 having recently given up the captaincy of Victoria to allow her to fully focus on her international duties.

That includes a first T20 tri-series in Ireland, also involving Pakistan, which will form Australia’s Comm Games warm-up.

The Aussies travelled without star spinner Jess Jonassen, who tested positive to Covid before departure, giving them the chance to look at some different line-ups in the first series without coach Matthew Mott, who is now in charge of England’s white-ball teams.

The leading candidates to fill that hole are leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington, off-spin bowling all-rounder Grace Harris or one of Australia’s many fast-bowling all-rounders.

“We‘ve got some really good all-round options in the pace department (as well as the spinners),” Lanning said.

“There’s no doubt that we want to try and get some cricket into the squad. We haven’t played for a little while.

“We have to manage some of the fast bowlers, which we do on any tour, so there probably will be some changes throughout the series.

“We’re coming into these games to win and play some really good cricket, so we’ll pick our strongest team that we can on each day.”

Australia’s next game will be against Pakistan on Saturday night.