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Australian cricket legend Steve Waugh has issued a surprising warning for Team India ahead of the LA 2028 Olympics. According to Waugh, it’s not Pakistan that poses a major threat, but neighboring China, which he claims is determined to build a gold-medal-winning cricket team.
China’s Rapid Preparations for Olympic Cricket
Waugh pointed out that China began working towards Olympic cricket success immediately after the sport’s inclusion in the 2028 Games was confirmed. Cricket’s return to the Olympics was officially announced in 2023 after years of effort from the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Although cricket has had a presence in China since the 1800s, its modern development has been gradual. Currently, cricket is played across nine cities in the country.
China’s competitive journey started with their appearance in the 2009 ACC Trophy Challenge. They played their first T20 International in July 2023 against Malaysia during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier. Since then, the Chinese team has competed in 11 matches, winning two and losing nine.
“As soon as cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics was announced, China started building a team,” Waugh was quoted as saying by ANI. “They are serious about winning gold. T20 is massive now. It’s billions of dollars, and it’s growing every day. Test cricket will survive, but T20 will dominate. Players will soon be contracted mainly to franchises. Test matches might even need special permissions,” he added.
China’s Sporting Ambition Extends to Cricket
China’s dominance in the Olympic arena is well-established. They consistently send powerful contingents to the Games and currently hold seventh place in the all-time medal standings with a total of 804 medals.
Their proven ability to excel in new sports, backed by strong government support and resources, makes their cricket ambitions particularly noteworthy for traditional cricket powerhouses like India.
ODI Format and the Olympics Parallel
Waugh also reflected on the uncertain future of the One-Day International (ODI) format, linking it to the significance of events like the World Cup and the Olympics.
“Everyone seems to think one-day cricket’s not going to survive, but then you have the World Cup and it’s huge and the ratings are massive and people love it and fall back in love with the game. Then it dies down for a couple years and we go through the same scenario,” Waugh said, as quoted by PTI.
He also highlighted the growing pressure from new formats like T10, suggesting that cricket may eventually have to juggle four different formats.
“So right now, somehow we’re managing to fit three formats of the game in and there’s pressure of T10 maybe coming in, so could be four, four formats of cricket. I don’t know how that’s all going to get managed, but right now it seems to be going okay…. World Cup is significant for one-day cricket. It’s pretty much the Olympics, to play (the World Cup) every four years,” he added.
