Former India head coach Ravi Shastri. File
| Photo Credit: M. Vedhan
With the ODI World Cup in India lower than seven months away, former India chief coach Ravi Shastri has raised the pitch for future editions of the ICC event to be 40-overs-a-side affair to give it a contemporary lease of life.
“For One-day cricket to survive, I think it should be reduced to 40-over game in future,” mentioned the previous India captain on day 4 of the fourth India-Australia Test in Ahmedabad on March 12, 2023.
Shastri mentioned the sport ought to deal with the diminishing consideration span of spectators and identified that when the Kapil Dev-led India gained the ODI World Cup in 1983, it was a 60-over-a-side event earlier than it was lowered to a 50-over affair.
“The reason I say this is because when we won the World Cup in 1983, it was a 60-over (a side) game. Then the attention span of the people diminished and it became a 50-over game. I think the time has come for it to become now a 40-over game. Evolve with the times. Reduce the format,” added Shastri.
While Shastri’s logic about attention span is justified but once the World Cup moved to the sub-continent in 1987, it wasn’t possible to hold matches over 120-over duration with two breaks — lunch and tea like it happened during first three editions in England.
The legendary cricketer said that the T20 format will continue to bring big bucks into the game, though he made his displeasure known for bilateral T20I series, saying they “needs to be lowered”.
Shastri is also a big advocate of reduced number of bilateral series.
“T20 format I feel is the important thing. It is the injection the sport wants to evolve. It’s the money cow for the game. But I feel there additionally the bilaterals (sequence) needs to be lowered. There are sufficient home leagues around the globe that promote the T20 recreation.
“We should let those leagues happen and then have a World Cup, just in between. Very few bilaterals, if needed before a World Cup or something of that sort. Then you can sustain all three formats,” added Shastri.
The former participant added that Test cricket will proceed to take pleasure in its pleasure of place because it was the “real thing”.
“Test cricket will remain Test cricket and it should be given paramount importance. It’s the real thing. I think there’s a place for all formats within India. Especially in the subcontinent. Especially in places like Australia.” India cricketer Dinesh Karthik additionally mentioned ODI format was dropping it appeal and that the World Cup in India in October-November this 12 months could possibly be the final version.
“ODI format has lost its charm. We may see the last World Cup later this year or maybe one more after that. People wants to see Test cricket, which is the truest form of cricket and T20 for entertainment,” mentioned Karthik.
He added that with a lot of cricket occurring around the globe to go together with the mushrooming home T20 leagues, the ODI format had been caught in “no man’s land”.
“Test cricket is like art movies and T20 is commercial cinema. ODIs are present in no man’s land. Take the example of Ben Stokes, the best all-rounder of the current times saying he is done with the ODI cricket.
“There is a indisputable fact that with a T20 World Cup scheduled each two years, international locations won’t be enjoying bilateral sequence anymore. There will not be sufficient ODI matches.”
