The International Cricket Council (ICC) has granted USA Cricket (USAC) a three-month respite amid governance concerns and ambiguity regarding its participation in squad selection for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The decision was made during the International Cricket Council annual board meeting in Singapore on July 19, where USAC’s progress was examined. After being ordered to fix its administrative and governance issues at the 2024 ICC Annual Conference, the American cricket board has been under investigation for about a year. A Normalisation Committee visited the U.S. last month, but little progress appears to have been accomplished.
The matter is especially problematic because USAC’s relationship with the USOPC, the country’s top Olympic authority, has worsened.
The ICC did not suspend USAC, perhaps due to the LA28 Olympic Games, where cricket would return after almost 100 years.
As the host nation, the USA’s men’s and women’s teams should qualify for the Olympics despite its internal instability. The broader concern is who will choose those teams, with USAC’s authority in question and ICC authorities considering other interim processes if governance difficulties are not resolved.
In response, the International Cricket Council chose a mixed LA28 Games qualification process. Some teams will qualify via International Cricket Council T20 rankings, while others must compete in Olympic qualifiers. India, rated first in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings, should qualify automatically regardless of the cut-off date.
Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council Board has formed a working group to evaluate and recommend structural reforms across all three formats. Monday, July 21, the last day of the Singapore conclave, will bring these proposals.
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