Australia coach Andrew McDonald is adamant the players he took to the Twenty20 World Cup were good enough, but the evidence suggests otherwise with a rebuild looming before they co-host the next tournament with New Zealand in 2028.

The 2021 champions were seen as title contenders again at the showpiece in India and Sri Lanka, but the former white-ball heavyweights instead suffered a calamitous exit in the group stage for the first time since 2009.

They head home to a significant pile-on from former Australian greats and an acerbic media who expected more.

They have been quick to lob sharp criticism at the underperforming players and perceived selection blunders.

“We said at the start of this World Cup that we were concerned about Australia,” pace great Glenn McGrath told reporters, pointing to the absence of fast bowlers Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc as exposing a soft underbelly.

“All of a sudden, the aura of that Australian team is no longer there when other teams play it … unfortunately, not surprising.”

The warning lights were flashing before the event even started when they capitulated heavily to Pakistan in a three-game warm-up, outplayed with bat and ball.

In those matches they lost by 22, 90 and 111 runs — the final two Australia´s largest in terms of runs in T20 internationals.

At the time, skipper Mitchell Marsh said: “Absolutely no stress from our end.”

That soon became: “It´s a devastated group” as their T20 campaign unravelled with defeats to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

Australia´s three selectors — George Bailey, McDonald and Tony Dodemaide — have come in for particular criticism, notably their continued faith in under-performing all-rounders Cameron Green and Cooper Connolly.

They were also blasted for their head-scratching failure to play Steve Smith and to drop in-form Matt Renshaw for the Sri Lanka clash when they were still mathematically alive.

“Look at the selections, look at [Glenn] Maxwell, Connolly, Green and [Josh] Inglis, these guys are all out of form,” lamented Mark Waugh, himself a former selector.

“The selectors have their plans in place, but you´ve got to be smart enough to see which players are in form and which players are out of form.

“And you´ve got to play the percentages a lot better than what our selectors have played.”

Own the fact

A defiant McDonald said there was “always going to be differing opinions from the outside”, suggesting they “don´t understand what the moving parts are and the conversations are on the inside”.

“The build into this tournament and the style of cricket, the balance of our batting unit and the balance of our bowling attack, we felt really confident coming into this tournament,” McDonald added.

“I think the decisions that we made and the squad that we picked, we´ve got a room full of players that are incredibly disappointed knowing that they were good enough to progress, and we´ve just got to own the fact that we haven´t.”

A forensic review of their disastrous performance is set to kick in once they return home ahead of planning for the next T20 World Cup when only three in the current squad — Green, Connolly and quick Xavier Bartlett — will be aged under 30.

What becomes of some of their ageing champions like Maxwell, Marcis Stoinis, Hazlewood and Cummins remains to be seen. Starc has already bowed out of the game´s shortest format.

McDonald noted that with a heavy Test load ahead and a one-day World Cup in 2027, Australia´s T20 schedule was light going forward, giving them limited opportunities to fine-tune the team in the immediate future.

“In the next 12 months, we´ll have a lack of T20 cricket, as is the way of the schedule,” he said. “We go to Bangladesh and we´ve got a series against England.

“They won´t really ramp up until pretty much that World Cup year, which is similar to what happened in this cycle.

“That´s probably not enough to start to build out what your direction is. I think that´ll come a little bit closer.”

American-born Team China skier Eileen Gu commented on Team USA figure skater Alysa Liu’s historic gold medal in the women’s free skate final Thursday at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

After Liu became the first American women’s figure skater to win an individual Olympic medal in 20 years and first to win a gold in 24 years, she made a celebratory Instagram post. 

“These are for y’all,” Liu wrote in the caption of a photo holding her gold medal and the U.S. team gold. 

ALYSA LIU VS EILEEN GU — HOW TWO CHINESE AMERICAN STARS WOUND UP ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF AN OLYMPIC PROXY WAR

Gu commented on the post, celebrating Liu’s victory.

“YESSSSSS,” Gu wrote in the comment section. 

The two Chinese American stars have been relentlessly compared and contrasted on social media this Olympics. 

Both athletes are the children of immigrants who came to the U.S. from China. But many fans and critics have been quick to point out the contrast between Liu’s story, a tale of American loyalty by an immigrant’s child, and Gu, who chose to compete for Team China when she was 15 years old despite living in California.

Arthur Liu raised Alysa and her siblings in Oakland. Yan Gu raised Eileen just across the bay in San Francisco.

Their paths diverged in 2019.

The Chinese government launched a program to recruit foreign-born athletes, primarily with Chinese heritage, to boost competitiveness, notably for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and soccer, according to The China Project.

Gu and Liu were top recruiting targets.

Gu traded in her red, white and blue for red and gold. Just months after competing in her first Freestyle Ski World Cup for the U.S. in January 2019, she competed for China for the first time in June of that year after requesting a change of nation with the International Ski Federation.

Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China attends the award ceremony for the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026.  (Hongxiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)

The Lius remained loyal to Team USA.

US OLYMPIAN ALYSA LIU WAS ONCE TARGETED BY CHINESE SPIES – HERE’S WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT

Arthur was reportedly “not open to persuasion” to having Alysa compete for China, according to The Economist.

Both athletes competed at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Gu representing China and Liu representing the U.S. 

Gu won two gold medals and one silver in freeskiing and went home to California as a new global household name for her success.

Liu finished in sixth place in women’s singles figure skating, then went into a temporary early retirement, before returning to the sport in 2024. 

But in 2026, Liu is the only one with any gold after helping the U.S. win team gold and her historic individual gold on Thursday. Maybe if Gu represented USA she would have won gold. 

Liu landed all her jumps and smiled during the individual final before erupting in a demonstrative celebration after she finished. 

She yelled, “That’s what I’m f—ing talking about!’ and “Holy s—!” while celebrating with her team. She finished with a 226.79 total score, a 150.20 free skate score and a 76.59 short program score. It was her season-best free skate score.

OLYMPIANS SPEAK OUT IN DEFENSE OF EILEEN GU AMID CRITICISM FOR COMPETING FOR CHINA OVER US

But Gu has only won two silvers so far in Italy. 

An interaction Tuesday with a reporter went viral after Gu responded to a question about her winning two silver medals instead of gold so far this Olympics, suggesting the question came from a “ridiculous perspective.”

“I’m the most decorated female freeskier in history. I think that’s an answer in and of itself,” Gu said when asked if she saw her two medals as “silvers earned” or “golds lost.”

“How do I say this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder because every medal is equally hard for me, but everybody else’s expectations rise, right? 

“The two medals lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I think is kind of a ridiculous perspective to take. I’m showcasing my best skiing. I’m doing things that quite literally have never been done before. So, I think that is more than good enough, but thank you.”

Gu will have one last chance to win gold in the women’s halfpipe final, considered her strongest event, Sunday. The event will take place a day after it was originally scheduled due to intense snow in the area.

Gu nearly lost out on any chance at a gold medal after falling in the halfpipe qualifier on Thursday. But she recovered in her second run to earn a spot in the final.

Gu has had to compete under the pressure of immense global scrutiny in response to her decision to compete for China seven years ago.

Gu was asked if she feels “like a bit of a punching bag for a certain strand of American politics” after her competition on Thursday.

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Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China poses for photos after the award ceremony for the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026.  (Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)

“I do,” she said, according to USA Today. “So many athletes compete for a different country. … People only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity, and they just hate China. So, it’s not really about what they think it’s about.

“And also, because I win. Like, if I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s OK for me. People are entitled to their opinions.”  

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LOS ANGELES — UCLA coach Mick Cronin said Friday he apologized to Steven Jamerson II for sending the center to the locker room late in a blowout loss at No. 15 Michigan State after he committed a hard foul.

Even before the referees reviewed the play and assessed Jamerson with a flagrant foul 1, Cronin grabbed Jamerson’s jersey and pointed for him to leave the court in the waning minutes of Tuesday’s 23-point loss to the Spartans in East Lansing.

“I don’t think, to be honest, the entire world has ever seen that in a game,” Bruins guard Trent Perry said.

“I already apologized to Steve, OK?” Cronin told reporters before UCLA’s practice. “It’s the only reason I sent him to the locker room. I thought he literally made a dirty play and tried to wipe the guy out. Once I saw the film, I mean, he still got an F-1. To be honest with you, I don’t even know if he deserved that.”

Cronin said Spartans coach Tom Izzo “thought the same thing when I communicated with him.”

Cronin joked that Jamerson “asked me for $10,000 more in NIL because of that.”

He went on to speak glowingly of Jamerson, who played three seasons at the University of San Diego before transferring to UCLA last summer for his final year of eligibility. Jamerson has started once in 26 games, averaging 2.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11.3 minutes. He was unsuccessful in walking on at Michigan State earlier in his career.

“Steve is everything that’s good about college basketball,” Cronin said. “He’s everything that I believe in about college basketball. That being said, I’m trying to protect, like I take it really seriously. Our guys don’t get techs. We’re not taking guys out in the air.”

Cronin said he’s sometimes too candid in his comments. He has complained about travel and tipoff times since UCLA joined the Big Ten last season and been harshly critical of his players at times after games. After the Michigan State loss, he also had a testy reply to a reporter’s question about Spartan fans.

“I have to do a better job of this, that in this climate, you’ve got to be careful with what you say. I’m a good fit here because I know I’m not bigger than the brand and the brand matters here, the school matters. The last thing I want to do is bring negative publicity to our school,” Cronin said.

“I apologize to our people — school, students, everybody in our community — because it’s important. These jobs, you gotta raise money, you gotta be friends with donors, I mean I believe in all that stuff.”

Jamerson wasn’t made available to media on Friday when he practiced with the team. Asked how the redshirt senior took Cronin’s apology, the coach replied, “Oh, he’s the best, man. … It’s not like I kicked him off the team.”

Perry, who is Jamerson’s roommate, has provided a reassuring ear.

“He’s been very mature about it,” Perry said. “I’m just glad that he’s keeping his head and I’m also checking in with him every single day.”

Guard Skyy Clark said the team is supporting Jamerson.

“Coach gave a pretty sincere apology,” Clark said. “I mean, obviously he was a little in his head about it, but you know, we gave him some words of encouragement.”

Clark said a players’ only meeting was called after the blowout road losses and another one was likely later Friday.

“We just gotta stay together,” he said. “That’s been the main focus.”

Cronin pushed back against perceptions that by ejecting Jamerson he doesn’t have his players’ backs.

“I know what I’m about,” the eighth-year coach said, “so I don’t really worry about that.”

Clark, a Louisville transfer and the Bruins’ third-leading scorer, has found a balance between Cronin’s varying forms of criticism.

“I say just listen to the message and not how it’s being conveyed. If you do that, then you really hear what he’s trying to say instead of how he’s trying to say it,” he said. “That’s just how he coaches. He was mentored under some pretty similar coaches, and so that’s just his style of coaching.”

The Bruins (17-9, 9-6 Big Ten) host 10th-ranked Illinois (22-5, 13-3) on Saturday. They’re coming off back-to-back blowout losses at then-No. 2 Michigan (30 points) and Michigan State.

Their lone signature win of the season was a 69-67 win over then-No. 4 Purdue last month.

“We saw that we can do it and so why not do it again?” Clark said.