Glenn Maxwell wants to defy Ponting’s retirement prediction

1 hour ago 1

Glenn Maxwell has left the door open for a final flourish for Australia at the Los Angeles Olympics and the Twenty20 World Cup on home soil in 2028, but admits he has already had frank discussions with selectors about not playing every series before then.

Having already retired from one-day international cricket, Maxwell’s name is set to be missing when Cricket Australia unveils its central contract list later this year, and he is now planning a year mixing franchise T20 gigs with time at home.

Glenn Maxwell (second from left) and Scott Boland (far right) pressed the flesh with Alpine Formula 1 racers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto at the MCG on Wednesday.

But Maxwell has held off making any definitive call on his international future in T20 tournaments so that he may still contend for selection at the big events in 2028, should his form and fitness warrant it. Maxwell turns 40 in October 2028 and Ricky Ponting has predicted he won’t play another World Cup.

“[I’ll be] fit and firing hopefully, but not setting any dates,” Maxwell said of the Olympics and World Cup double. “Not making a decision around my future was probably based more on what’s to come over the next 12 months.

“There’s not a whole lot of T20 cricket planned, so [there is] probably no need to make any formal announcements and [I’ll] see how my body’s going and see how I’m travelling.

“I felt like I got better and better throughout the World Cup, even the way I judged it on running around the field and how I’m feeling, more than statistics regarding wickets and runs. I felt like I was able to get through games a lot easier, felt like I was playing my role as well as I could, and felt like I still had plenty to offer.”

Head coach Andrew McDonald and selection chair George Bailey were in Melbourne on Wednesday for discussions with CA high-performance chief Ben Oliver, and Maxwell said he had continued open communication with the panel.

“We’ve had some discussions about what the next little bit looks like, and we’ll continue to have really open and fluid discussions going forward,” he said. “If I’m fit and firing and available, I’ll be ready. I’ll be open and fluid with them, and they will be the same with me.”

Maxwell recently joined the Pakistan Super League for the first time to play with the Hyderabad franchise, and is also tied in to play in Major League Cricket in the United States and the nascent European T20 League.

“It looks like PSL, Major League [in the United States], European League, around the Junction [Oval] for a bit and then BBL,” he said. “I think that’s still quite a bit of cricket and enough time in between to put some time into my body.

Is it lights out for Glenn Maxwell at World Cups?

“I’ll be a bit more specific about how I prepare, physically. I’ll still be working with the Melbourne Stars staff around my physical preparation at Junction Oval – I don’t think that’s going to change a whole lot.”

Scott Boland, meanwhile, expressed confidence that his durable five-Test showing in the Ashes series means his soon-to-be 37-year-old body is up to the rigours of Australia’s scheduled 21 Tests (22 if they reach the world Test championship final) between August 2026 and July 2027.

“I’m going to play one Shield game then the Shield final, but after that I’m going to have a really good block of a pre-season to try to get myself through that 11-12 month as well as I can,” Boland said. “I probably didn’t expect I’d have to get through five Tests this summer with the other guys coming back.

“But it gives me confidence going into the future going into these games that my body is in a really good spot. At the back end of the Indian summer my knees were pretty sore and tired and needed a bigger strength block than I thought I would, but now I feel like I’ve timed it pretty well and got through really well.”

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