West Indies cricket is trying to get an Olympic opportunity in Los Angeles 2028. This one is a bit problematic: the entire Caribbean islands have to come as one team if they qualify. The problem comes in that for cricket, they compete as Windies under one cricket board, while the Olympics allow only sovereign countries to compete.
For instance, Mijaín López Núñez represented Cuba in wrestling at the Paris Games and won gold. However, any cricket team from Cuba would come under the Windies’ umbrella. The hope for LA 2028 is to see at least one sovereign state from the Caribbean participating in the T20 events.
Kishore Swallow, President of Cricket West Indies, said that in the Olympics, the Caribbean has always done well and that young cricketers should have the chance as well. He stated that the Charter talks about fairness, and they simply want fairness for this. He feels that West Indies cricket should be entitled to a clear pathway to the games.
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Currently, the Windies girls’ team is ranked sixth in T20I, with the men at fifth. If things hold, they should both qualify. A bit of a problem though: since the host country, USA, does not rank very high, they perhaps might become auto-qualifiers though. If that happens, only five other spots would be for grabs, and yet the International Cricket Council is yet to lay down guidelines for qualification. The ICC had almost said that teams would be selected on T20I rankings as of a specific date for olympics.
