Steve Smith’s long-term red ball future remains one of cricket’s greatest mysteries, but the stand-in Test skipper has revealed for the first time his desire to still be around for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics when T20 makes its debut.
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The 35-year-old looked faster, hit higher and stronger than his rivals with a remarkable 121 not out for the Sixers in his first BBL game of the season against the Scorchers on Saturday despite only having his first proper hit in a week 15 minutes before the match in the nets.
It was one of the best knocks in tournament history and one you’d expect from a T20 specialist, not someone who was playing his first game since July when he helped Washington win the Major League Cricket final.
Smith has played just four T20 internationals for Australia since the start of 2023 and was unsold at the recent Indian Premier League auction which he last played in four years ago, but the former national skipper made it clear that he has no plans on retiring any time soon.
“I’d like to play the Olympics, I reckon that would be cool,” he said following his whirlwind knock at the SCG.
“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. There are other guys around the country giving it a whack.”
Australia didn’t qualify for the semi-finals at last year’s T20 World Cup, with Smith not even making the squad, and he says he hasn’t discussed future plans with selectors.
He’s content playing for the Sixers for the next two games before the tour of Sri Lanka, with the run-scoring machine glad he didn’t rush back after a hectic India series where he was stranded on 9999 Test runs.
“I haven’t really spoken about it (a recall). I am not really that fussed,” he said just days after he was named captain of the Test side in place of Pat Cummins who has an ankle injury and is staying in Australia for the birth of his second child.
“I do what I do, enjoy coming back here playing for the Sixers and helping the team have success. I love the boys in that changeroom, it’s a good group, I have been involved for a long time.
“I could have played the other night maybe in Melbourne, but I needed a bit of down time after a pretty hectic five Test matches. I’m glad I didn’t, I tried to freshen up a bit for tonight and fortunately I was able to help the boys win.”
The refresh proved to be a masterstroke as he belted his third BBL century in just 32 matches, joining Ben McDermott (100 games) at the top of the list.
He started slowly against the Scorchers and was given a life on 31 before he went ballistic, blasting seven sixes in his unbeaten 121 off 64 balls which included square drives and a couple of switch hits which cleared the boundary.
His Sixers form has been irresistible with Smith smashing back-to-back centuries a couple of seasons ago, with his inclusion set to see Friday’s Sydney derby sold out.
And while he’ll be 39 when the Olympics eventually roll around, Smith will be fully immersed in the world of T20s and could have a whole new arsenal of shots that he can unleash on the rest of the world.
“I find the more I play back-to-back games you get in sync with the game,” he said.
“Today for instance I don’t think I played my first 10 balls really well, I was probably going a bit too hard for how the wicket was playing.
“I had a bit of luck early, and then from there found some rhythm. But if I am playing T20s regularly I probably come out with a slightly different mindset at the start, give myself a bit more time and just play better cricket shots than a bit of the rogue stuff. I think that would come if I was playing consistently.
“I think it’s just the gears and going up and down in the gears throughout the innings. And just playing the percentages. Today we had a short boundary, and I was saying whenever I am on the short boundary side I am going to try and target it.
“And then if they go wide, which they tended to, I was looking for gaps on the off-side I could hit to. And then the other end was just play good smart cricket, targeted straight.
“I was hitting straight down the ground well off the spinners. Just intelligent batting.”
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