LA 2028 Olympic cricket qualifiers: Dates, direct entry criteria, and tournament format explained originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- The LA 2028 Olympic cricket qualifiers will be held in January and February 2028.
- The ICC has changed how the fifth women’s automatic place will be decided.
- Eight teams will contest each qualifier, though venues remain unconfirmed.
Road to LA28 locked! ICC confirms dates for 2028 Olympic cricket qualifiers
Cricket’s return to the Olympic Games has moved a step closer, but the road to Los Angeles has also changed in a few important ways.
The ICC has confirmed that the men’s and women’s qualifiers for the LA 2028 Olympics will be played in January and February 2028, and it has also revised how the final automatic women’s place will be awarded.
According to Cricinfo,the ICC had originally pencilled in 2027 for the qualifying events, but they have now been moved to early 2028, which leaves less than six months before the start of the LA28 Games.
Those Games will be the first Olympics since 1904 to feature cricket, so the schedule carries a good deal of historical weight. The dates appear in a global events list that the ICC shared with its member boards after meetings in Dubai in October.
How teams qualify directly for LA 2028 Olympic cricket: Women’s and men’s criteria
Six teams will take part in each Olympic tournament, and the schedule and structure for those events were announced in June.
In the women’s category, four sides have already booked their places as the highest-ranked eligible teams from their continents, based on their showing at the T20 World Cup earlier this year. They are Australia, India, South Africa and Great Britain.
For the men, the route is different. The top four teams on the ICC T20I rankings as of December 31, 2026, will qualify as the best eligible sides from Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
The ICC said in June that the United States, as hosts, could take part in both the men’s and women’s events, provided they finished in the top 15 of the respective T20I rankings at any point between June 30, 2026 and December 31, 2026. The USA men are currently ranked 13th, which assures them of a direct place.
The women’s side is a different story. They sit 19th and are in danger of missing out under the updated rules.
2028 Olympic cricket qualifier format: Explained
In June, the ICC had said that if the USA women failed to meet the criteria, a fifth automatic place would go to the highest-placed non-qualified nation in the T20I rankings from any continent as of March 1, 2027.
That has now changed, and the spot will instead be decided by the standings in the inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy, to be played in India in February 2027.
Both the men’s and the women’s qualifiers will have eight nations, and the ICC is still to confirm the venues for either event. The eight sides will be the seven highest-ranked teams outside the automatic qualifiers, plus the winner of the Caribbean Regional Qualifier.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Teams in each qualifier | 8 |
| How they are chosen | Seven highest-ranked non-qualified teams plus the Caribbean Regional Qualifier winner |
| Venues | Not yet finalised |
| Timing | January and February 2028 |
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