Does ODI cricket will soon get out of the equation…?

 

With Ben Stokes announcing his sudden retirement from this format, the future of this set-up is in shadow. 

Ben Stokes retirement from ODI cricket has raged the question on this formats future

There was a time when ODI cricket and Test cricket had ruled the cricketing charts around the world. Though test format was, is, and will always be the pinnacle of international cricket but in between that ODI cricket had managed to soak some space out of the red-ball mania in 1971 with some of the greatest tournaments being played in a one-day format.

But with time, this format has tarnished its reputation with the emergence of the new and fast cricket i.e., T20 and various leagues around the world being played in this format. And to add that misery, one of the greatest names in one-day cricket, Ben Stokes has announced his retirement from the 50-overs format.

He left this citing that it has gone unsustainable for him to play three formats simultaneously. With schedules being tightly wrapped, many players and teams are focusing on some format with few teams going to the OG, i.e.; test cricket while some are shaping up according to the T20 cricket demand.

But in between that, none of them took a stand with this format which demands a mix of both test and 20-20 cricket style from players.

Now, even Pakistani legend Wasim Akram has come against the format in which he had always been the stalwart. He played 356 ODI games and picked up whopping 502 wickets with 6-times picking up a five-for in a match.

He came in the support of Stokes citing the burden with which players are going in this era of cricket where a hectic schedule is the new normal to adapt in. In his words, “ODI cricket should be scrapped for now,” and it does not create any impact in international cricket with looming in between the red ball cricket and the shortest format.

With the introduction of T20 cricket and various leagues around the world, it has now become irrelevant to drag the second longest format with its result mattering not more than rankings to the players. No player will ever sweat out all his blood and mental health for the sake of that Paytm trophy after ruthlessly working for 8 hours.

The 20-over game draws out all the drawbacks that the ODI format has. The biggest one is picking out that phase of 10-40 overs where play just nearly stops breathing. For the first 10 overs, the game is always poised at both sides with the new ball swinging well and runs flowing smoothly owing to the field restrictions. But in the middle phase, it seems like there is nothing left to watch out for, just play is going without any intensity if removing the few instances.

In the last critical 10 overs, the game catches up some fire and players go with a bang-bang approach just to take a psychological lead and to drift the momentum towards themselves when coming out to defend the total after 50 overs.

The ODI format peaked in 2006 when the greatest ever match was played at Johannesburg between South Africa and Australia. Australia, the reigning world champions batted first and put on a mammoth score of 434 in 50 overs thanks to the blitzkrieg by Ricky Ponting, who smashed 164 runs in 105 balls.

However, what we saw in the latter half of the match was just uncommon. That was the first ever 400+ total in the one-day format and it was just proven insufficient against the proteas line-up powered by Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, and Mark Boucher.

From that day, ODI cricket ironically demanded some revolutionized forms to sustain itself in the long race with test and t20 and newly implemented IPL. In 2007, T20 cricket found its rhythm among Indian cricket fans when they were out from the exit stage of the 50-over world cup following which they were crowned as the inaugural t20 world cup champions and after a year, Lalit Modi gave birth to the cash-rich Indian Premier League.

All these factors may have led to the downfall of ODI cricket which was at its pinnacle in the 90s and early 2000s. Not only the boring aspect it had that made it an unenjoyable child of cricket but the hectic schedule that today’s cricket boards are making also made it impossible for all three format players to sustain.

Test cricket is the ultimate one and an area where you get fame, name, and recognition among the cricket greats. Hence, many players choose to test over one day and prefer t20 too because of the less toll it takes on one’s mind.

Stokes’ sudden farewell to this format, has surely raised the heat among the cricket experts and committees to assess once again the significance of ODI in modern cricket. If not regular World Cups and Champions Trophy that is going to return in 2025, scrapping out this format can make a way for a new era of cricket where on the one side defence is the ultimate option, and on the other hand, go-to-approach is the ultimate law of playing T-20 cricket.

But before doing all this, let’s assign a big responsibility on the shoulders of the cricketing boards and the players to reform the golden format of this beautiful game which demands some patience, grit, and attack. Maybe, through re-launching tri-series and some modifications just like the change they have bought to test cricket.

On to the next generation of players like Shubman Gill, Devon Conway, Rishabh Pant, Liam Livingstone, and Nicholas Pooran to take ahead the legacies of the greats from their respective countries and sustain the 50-over format as the lovable child of cricket.