Here is an excerpt from Adam Žampa’s press conference after Australia’s match against Oman in the 2026 FIFA World Cup T20.
(Reporter:)
Adam, four wickets into the campaign, had Australia, that must have felt good on some level.
(Adam Žampa:)
Yeah, it’s okay. Like when you come into these games it’s a bonus to get some wickets and come away with a win but I reckon I’d probably feel exactly the same if I didn’t get one tonight. Yeah, I feel pretty empty to be honest. Again, you’d rather have goals than not, but it’s probably the worst fourth-down feeling I’ve ever had.
(Reporter:)
When did the feeling come?
(Adam Žampa:)
Probably when there were about 13 to win against Sri Lanka and I played on it. I felt like it was game over. So it’s been a busy couple of days. Yeah, the higher expectations of ourselves, of each other, what we’ve built as a group over the last two years, the way we’ve played, we’ve played some really good bilateral cricket, so to sit here now and know I’m flying home tomorrow, it doesn’t feel like a result that we’re – I didn’t envision this for sure, so it’s a flat feeling.
(Reporter:)
I know it’s a little uncomfortable to talk about, but anything you can say, how have the talks been going in the last few days around the camp and the team?
(Adam Žampa:)
Not much was said. Yeah, not much has been said yet. I think he will be there. We’ll take it apart, that’s for sure. But there’s not much to say right now, especially with one game left and four days to kill. Yeah, get through this and then we’ll get home and I’m sure there will be a review for it.
(Reporter:)
Was it difficult to motivate everyone for this match? Was there still a lot of pride to play for?
(Adam Žampa:)
Yes, there is definitely pride. Like I said, we’re so disappointed to finish well and we’ve done that. We should dominate these games and we did tonight, so that’s it.
(Reporter:)
If you were asked to explain or give your reasons for what went wrong, where would you put it? I’m guessing there are a few issues, but how would you rank them?
(Adam Žampa:)
Yeah, I think looking back at the two games we lost against Zimbabwe, that’s probably the best wicket we’ve had or seen in the whole competition in Sri Lanka. It was a really good batting week. It might have slowed down a bit on the day but 170 with the first seven we have you think it would be a gallop but when we were four down in the power play we got under pressure. When you look back on that power play, how could we have done it a little differently? And then the Sri Lanka game, being one for 110 and then being bowled out for 180 – Can you improve that a bit to get to 200 and 210 and make it an almost unbeaten game if you play half decently? Even 180, I think we could have done a bit better with the ball but it took the wind out of the sails. I think the last 10 overs with the bat against Sri Lanka and we’ll probably – Nissanka, we’ll get him out and bowl him a bit better. It could potentially look a little different. But I think looking back, it’s probably just under pressure. Like, we’ve done it in back-to-back series. If you look back to West Indies six months ago, we won 5-0 and played some incredible cricket. The boys hit the ball out of the park. You can look back and say there was probably almost no pressure compared to what we can’t come up with in the World Cup and when it came down to it, unfortunately we couldn’t do it, so it’s really disappointing.
(Reporter:)
It hurts more because maybe it’s the thing that Australia as a cricket team has always boasted that you come to the World Cup and almost always perform.
(Adam Žampa:)
Yeah, I think we’re known for being good tournament teams, but I think since we won in 2021, we’ve come through the World Cup in 2022 and 2024 again really disappointed. Those two teams in particular, I think we probably should have pushed it and come closer to winning. You never know what’s going to happen at the end of these tournaments, but the two teams we’ve had in the last two World Cups in particular have been really disappointing in my opinion. And then the way we bounced back and played another 18 months to two years, played particular brands of cricket to get to the next World Cup, and then we didn’t quite do it again when it mattered. I think the last three days for me are a reflection of how the last three World Cups have been, what we’ve done in between. I think number two and number three in the world in general behind India. We always give India a chance when we play them in bilateral series. Sometimes they beat us, sometimes we beat them, so we’re a good team, but then results like this, it’s hard to predict.
(Reporter:)
Rumors on the internet are that Australia doesn’t care that much about T20 cricket? Would you refute that? One would say that it is not quite like that. Australian cricket as a whole?
(Adam Žampa:)
It’s totally fake, yes. The amount of time that the coaches and staff put into how we’re going to play our T20 cricket and who’s going to play each role and our preparation, I think they’d probably spend as much time on that as they would Test cricket. I think potentially even more. I don’t know, but maybe even more time because T20 cricket, one-day cricket, they’re all much tighter in the world, whereas Test cricket, Australia and the top two or three teams are quite dominant, so I don’t think the work is needed as much, whereas it’s much tighter in this format in particular. So the work is definitely there. It’s just – I think the problem with the Australian public is that they don’t see a lot of white-ball cricket. We play three to six games in the summer. We do a lot of our work outside of Australian time, so they don’t see the way we play and prepare for these World Cups. And we’ve done something – we’ve played a lot of really good cricket so far, so yes, it’s disappointing that it’s ended like this, but I think the work and the time is just as much an effort as it is in other formats.
(Reporter:)
Obviously it won’t affect your continuation in the tournament, but we’ve got the four group winners all on one side, the four runners up, and with this previous one, there’s another World Cup in Australia, and logistics and ease of getting tickets for fans and things like that are often cited as reasons for this early seeding? Does it need to be changed?
(Adam Žampa:)
Great question. I’m not sure. I think that could change, for sure. I think if you win a certain number of games in your group, you should play against seeds that make sense, and you don’t do seeding like franchise contests, you don’t have to do that. So tickets, people who want to buy tickets will buy them if they want to. So I don’t believe the former is important. I think if you finish first in Group A in the future and play against Group B, you should play a team that probably won’t win that many games.
(Reporter:)
You obviously saw the gap between the allied nations and a strong team like yourself. Obviously, there are associated nations that have played much better against the Test game in this edition. You could just send, obviously you have played a lot of cricket so what message could you give to the Omani cricketers who don’t have that much experience and also talked about the lack of cricket in the franchise and it’s a very young team. So the difference was obviously very significant as seen in the win today, but what message could you send to the Omani team?
(Adam Žampa:)
I think with each team specifically you see what Zimbabwe did, the other teams that gave the test nations a run for their money. I don’t think you’ll get better or get used to a step up like that if you don’t expose yourself to it more. I think Oman for example, they’ve played us twice in the last year, they’ve played against some good opponents, so naturally they’ll realize how to improve and where they need to be. So I think you saw that in Zimbabwe, they have people playing franchise cricket and exposing themselves to better cricket. You don’t get better at bowling without, not bowling, that’s the same thing, you don’t get better at playing against better opponents without playing against them. That makes sense. So yes, these competitions and world cups and cricket franchises are important for that.