EXPLAINED: Why two-time T20 World Cup champions West Indies may miss out on playing in the LA Olympics Cricket News:
New Delhi: Two-time Men’s T20 World Cup champions West Indies could miss out on cricket’s return to the Olympics in 2028 after the qualification process was revealed on Monday (June 29). Six teams each will play in the men’s and women’s T20 competition at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.Besides the four highest-ranked eligible National Olympic Committees (NOC) on the continent and a quota place for the host USA, one more place will be decided by a Final Olympic Global Qualification Tournament (FOCGQT).Based on the rankings on 31 December 2026, a qualifying tournament will be played with the “next eight highest ranked qualifying teams that have not yet qualified.”If the West Indies, currently ranked seventh in the ICC T20I, the ICC will organize a West Indies Nations Regional Tournament.It will be played to decide which NOC will compete in the FOCGQT. Unlike the ICC, which recognizes the collection of Caribbean islands as the West Indies, this is not the case with the IOC (International Olympic Committee).Therefore, the IOC recognizes Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands, as separate NOCs. The ICC, however, is not.The NOC that wins the FOGQT will secure the final spot in the Olympic quota.Cricket returns to the Olympics after a gap of 126 years. The last time cricket was played at the Olympics was in Paris 1900.
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