Steve Smith has declared his interest in representing Australia at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, in a call that could offer Ricky Ponting the chance to make up for his eye-opening IPL snub of the 35-year-old. Smith wants to prolong his white-ball career and has set himself a “goal” of playing in Australia’s T20 squad at the LA Games.

Cricket is set to be reintroduced to the Olympics in 2028 at which point Smith will be the ripe old age of 39. But the Aussie veteran showed the other day that he is still a force in T20 cricket after blasting an unbeaten 121 off just 64 balls to guide the Sydney Sixers to a 14-run win over the Perth Scorchers in the BBL.

The extraordinary knock was Smith’s third century in just 32 BBL games, with the veteran flourishing in his role as opener in T20 cricket. And it prompted questions from around the cricket world about why Ponting – who is coaching the Punjab Kings in 2025 – chose to overlook Smith in the recent IPL auction as the Aussie great went unsold.

Ponting has stacked his Punjab side with Aussies including Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis, but couldn’t find room for Smith. And his snub is even more surprising after Ponting coached Smith to the title with Washington Freedom in the inaugural edition of America’s Major League Cricket – with Smith the standout player of the competition.

Smith has continued that form in the BBL this season, where he averages 45.88 with the bat and has the sixth-best strike-rate of any batter with 146.3. And the 35-year-old conceded that while the end might be edging closer for his Test career, he still plans on playing white-ball cricket for some time and would love to represent Australia at the Olympics.

Steve Smith keen to play for Australia at LA Games in 2028

“I’d like to play the Olympics, I reckon that would be cool,” Smith said. “We’ll see how far I go in terms of long-form cricket. But I am going to play short-form cricket for a while I think when I do finish. You never know. There are a lot of good young kids who are smacking the ball out of the park.”

Cricket’s reintroduction to the LA Games marks the first time the sport been played at the Olympics since 1900 when only Great Britain and France featured. But the United States have made a big push into cricket in recent years – as evidenced by the formation of Major League Cricket – and the LA Games presents a huge platform for the continued growth of the sport in the region.

Ricky Ponting eyes mentor role for Australia at Olympics

It could also present Ponting with the chance to make up for his snub of Smith in the IPL, with the Aussie legend already putting his hand up to lead the country’s quest for gold. Ponting thinks the Olympics could be a watershed moment for the cricket in the United States and wants to be part of the team as a coach, or even a mentor.

“It’d be a pretty nice job, I reckon, to be a mentor around a cricket team in the Olympic Games, to hang out,” Ponting told the ICC review last year. “I was lucky enough to play in the Commonwealth Games and just to be around the athletes in the villages and stuff was quite a surreal environment to be in for a cricketer.

“So, look, I wouldn’t say no, but I think there’ll be a lot of people putting their hands up to try and be a mentor or a coach for an Aussie team in the Olympic Games. It’d be special to be a part of, so who knows? We’ll keep my fingers crossed and see what happens.

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“I think it also gives cricket a chance to break into the grassroots level in the US. But the thing about the Olympic Games, I mean, it’s not the host nation. It’s about the audience that it opens up. The Olympic Games being viewed by so many people all around the world, it just opens up completely different audiences to our game that’s seemingly growing on a daily basis anyway. It can only be a real positive thing for the game.

“I think it’s only six or seven teams that they’re talking about, so qualification is going to be at a premium, how you actually qualify to get into the Olympic Games. So all those things to think about, I’m really excited about where the game’s headed and the growth of different markets that we’re seeing emerge.”