England’s best all-format players are likely to miss home Tests in 2028 because of a direct clash with cricket’s long-awaited return to the Olympics.
Cricket will be played at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, with men’s and women’s tournaments featuring six teams each. Construction is under way on a new stadium in Pomona, 30 miles to the east of LA.
As the top-ranked T20 team in Europe, Team GB are guaranteed a place in the event alongside the likes of India, Australia and South Africa. As hosts, the United States seem certain to earn the Americas place, with one further spot up for grabs.
The England and Wales Cricket Board, alongside its Scottish counterparts, has set up a new entity, GB Cricket, to organise its participation in the event, which could also involve Northern Irish players who represent Ireland. The selection process is still unclear, but it seems likely that a large proportion of Team GB’s squad will be English.
While the return of cricket to the Olympics is a boon, the fly in the ointment for the ECB is that it takes place in a prime spot in the home summer, with the LA Games scheduled to run from July 14 to 30.
This creates a direct clash with England’s three-Test series against West Indies, their second Test series of a busy summer. In June they will play three Tests against South Africa before white-ball series against India, then three Tests against the West Indies. The Hundred has been pushed further back into August so T20 players involved in the Olympics can be involved, before the summer concludes with white-ball series against Australia in September.
Given the selection process for Team GB is still unclear, and we do not know who England’s best players in each format will be in two years’ time, it cannot be said with absolute certainty that Test regulars will miss the West Indies matches. However, there appears a strong desire at the ECB to support the sport’s return to the Olympics by making the best players available.
That would mean the likes of Harry Brook, who could be England’s Test captain by then, would travel to LA for the Olympics rather than play against the West Indies. Of the current squad, the likes of Jacob Bethell and Jofra Archer could also be affected.
Players missing Test matches because of T20 clashes is not entirely new. Last year, Bethell missed a Test against Zimbabwe to stay at the Indian Premier League, while Archer is not in the squad for the first Test against New Zealand in two weeks’ time because he has been playing in the IPL and has been unable to get his bowling loads ready for the longer format.
Next summer, an England Test against Pakistan in late May, at Old Trafford, is currently scheduled during the IPL. That precedes the Ashes, which will begin at Trent Bridge, the most northerly ground of the series. Trent Bridge has not hosted an Ashes Test since 2015, a match best remembered for Stuart Broad’s extraordinary eight for 15.
The ECB has laid out its major match allocation with venues until 2031, but is keen to lock in another four years to 2035 to provide host counties with certainty over their future income. They have made clear their desire to host more five-Test series, including against South Africa in 2032, although that is another summer when the schedule will be affected by an Olympics clash. The Games being so far away in Brisbane will make logistics even more difficult than in 2028.
Eyebrows were raised this week when the ECB signposted in its 2025 accounts that it is expected to make a “significant” loss in the Ashes year of 2027, because India are not touring, so it does not receive as much broadcast income from the Indian market. This summer’s five T20s and three ODIs against India are thought to be worth about £10m per match in the ECB’s deal with Sony.
A desire to tap into the Indian market is largely behind cricket’s admission to the Olympics.
The sport has been played only once at the Games, in Paris in 1900, when just two countries competed. A Devon and Somerset Wanderers side representing Great Britain beat France to take gold.
But India’s vast population of 1.48 billion and growing economic heft make it a prime target for the International Olympic Committee. India finished 71st in the table at the 2024 Olympics in Paris with just six medals, and have won just 10 golds in 25 appearances at the Summer Games. Ahmedabad is due to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and is bidding for the 2036 Olympics.
While England have their bilateral commitments in place for some time yet, there remains a morsel of doubt over their schedule beyond the end of 2027 because the International Cricket Council has not yet agreed on a Future Tours Programme or a structure for the World Test Championship. The final of the current edition of that tournament will take place at Lord’s again next June.