Farewell One Day cricket, thanks for the memories
Roar Guru
By David Wiseman, 11 Sep 2009 David Wiseman is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Cricket, ODIs, one day international cricket
South Africa's Johan Botha bowls a delivery while Australia's Ricky Ponting looks on during their One Day International series match at the MCG in Melbourne, Friday, Jan. 16, 2009. AAP Image/Joe Castro
I have never been more disinterested in a one-day series. Australia wins, Australia loses, who cares? Craig White scores runs, Nathan Hauritz takes wickets. Big deal!
This is a crowded time of the sports year and the care factor for these games is lower than Kyle Sandilands’ approval rating.
All and sundry have acknowledged the demise of the 50 over game.
Let’s face it – when it came onto the scene, the shortened form of the game was fresh and exciting. Chris Tavare was the poster boy of Test cricket and you would hear gasps from the crowd if there was a four before lunch on the first morning of a Test match.
But then one day cricket shook things up. Fine.
But just because you had fun with something 20 years ago doesn’t mean you are going to have fun with it now. The Nintendo 64 or Sega Saturn is at the back of the closet for a reason, and if you look really well, you could probably find a Game & Watch in there as well.
Would I waste my time with any of these when I have a Wii, Xbox and PS3 waiting for me? No way!
That isn’t to say I’m not going to miss parts of the 50 over a side game.
I already miss the triangular series. I loved the old school version when the two neutrals played on the Saturday and then one of them backed up for the Sunday.
They were fun.
I’m going to miss the wicketkeepers appealing for a catch when they are trying to con the umpire into not paying a wide.
No longer will I be able to fall asleep in front of the telly watching a day-nighter from the WACA and wake up to see that there is an episode of Bonaza on.
Good times!
I liked the feeling when leaving work at 1 in order to be at the SCG in order for the 2.20pm start.
Most of all I will miss those days when it’s raining and they show classic games. I remember one particular wet summer when they showed a lot of the early years of World Series Cricket.
That was cool.
There were moments I will remember forever. Michael Bevan hitting a four off the last ball of the match, Allan Lamb hitting 18 from the last over of the match, Trevor Chappell bowling underarm, the Phil Simmons wicket dance and Steve Waugh taking a catch behind the sightscreen at the MCG are all great memories from a bygone era.
They will be missed. Why wouldn’t they? But that’s the price we have to pay for progress.
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Matt0931 said | September 11th 2009 @ 7:46am | Report comment
I totally disagree.
50 over cricket still has a huge place in world cricket. Just because a few Aussies back home don’t want to get up at some crazy time is no reason to abandon such a great format of the game. I live in London and have done so for 9 years now and love going to one-dayers to watch the Aussies play- it makes me feel like I’m back home especially when there are lots of other Aussie supporters close by.
And what’s more, all the matches so far have all but sold out! Come and have a moan about one-dayers being out of touch when the grounds are empty and I might listen to you.
Personally I’m not that great a fan of T20 crciket…not yet anyway. Yes it is exciting to see your big hitters knock them over the stands but the skill factor of 50 over cricket of being able to put on enough runs whilst still holding onto wickets is lost in T20 where it doesn’t matter as much if a player gets out for only say 20 runs and the idea of strategy is all but nonexistant.
England has now dropped 50 over cricket from their domestic schedule, and I guess Aus will follow suit after the next world cup and I think we will see a 40 over game emerge from the ashes…this could still be quite interesting but for the game as a whole, and especially for the spinners, this will be a sad day. Those middle 10 overs when spinners shine and the batting team is either made or broken can be some of the most important and I will miss them.
Brett McKay said | September 11th 2009 @ 8:51am | Report comment
I mostly disagree David, but not totally Matt. There is no doubt a rethink is needed, but I’ll maintain until I’m blue in the face that there has to be something in the gap between Tests and T20.
If that urgent rethink means that pointless OD series are dropped, and instead we just have three ODIs and a T20I before or after a Test series (plus World Cups, obviously) then that would be fantastic. If the rethink determines that moving to 40 overs is the go, then I’ll live with that too, but we can’t afford to drop the one-day game completely.
In my opinion, dropping the one-day game would have a far bigger impact on Test cricket than the emergence of T20..
Joel said | September 11th 2009 @ 9:29am | Report comment
It’s been good to see CAMERON White score some runs, unless that was a call on how irrelevant ODI cricket has become?
Timmuh said | September 11th 2009 @ 7:24pm | Report comment
That Cameron White, or Craig for that matter, can score runs shows how pointless limited overs cricket – either 20 or 50 – really is.The guy shouldn’t be playing VCA first grade.
Malibu77 said | September 11th 2009 @ 10:41am | Report comment
Other memorable moments for me:-
* the Miracle at Mohali (1996 world cup quarter-final West Indies unbelievable collapse to the Aussies)
* 1999 world cup semi-final tie between Aussiies and South Africa
* the 434 vs 431Jo’burg run feast when Ponting’s brilliant 140 was made to look pedestrian by Herschelle Gibbs 175 (he would have made 250 if not dismissed when he was !)
* the entire 1987 Aussies world cup campaign – the start of the golden era of Australian cricket.
sheek said | September 11th 2009 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Oh, they’re playing a One Day tournament at the moment, are they…………???
Zzzzzzzzzzz!
Yeah, one day cricket used to mean something to me….. once upon a time long ago. Basically (sorry Brett) there IS too much cricket. I would say, as with most sports today, there’s too much quantity & too little quality.
Brett McKay said | September 11th 2009 @ 11:07am | Report comment
Sheek, no need for apologies, I agree with you completely on the too much cricket front. That’s exactly why I say an urgent rethink is needed…
FIsher Price said | September 11th 2009 @ 11:13am | Report comment
Worth thinking about, I think: there have been great and memorable moments in 50-over cricket; there will never be any in T20 ‘cricket’, which is all about exciting spectators.
wallythefly said | September 11th 2009 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
I find it hard to get into both limited over forms of the game but I think the problem with it partly stems from the fact that there are just sooooo many games.
Surely a less is more approach for T20 and ODIs would make things a little more interesting…
Brett McKay said | September 11th 2009 @ 12:58pm | Report comment
Wally, Sheek has just added you to his list of disciples with your use of “less is more” above….
Greg Russell said | September 11th 2009 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
Bit of a Freudian slip from David in the opening line: Craig White was an Australian and a decent cricketer (and Darren Lehmann’s brother-in-law), but he played for England.
My interest in this tournament has been to see how a weak Australian side performs. I mean, Watson, Paine and Cameron White – has Australia ever fielded a weaker top 3 in any form of international cricket? And yet the team is 3-0 up.
When I wrote last week that Michael Clarke should take over as Australian captain, most people were of the opinion that “Mr Lara Bingle” (as some called him) couldn’t even captain a dinghy. Well from my perspective he’s doing very well in this series, just as, in hindsight, he did bloody well to lead an understrength Australian side to victory over the future T20 world champions (Pakistan) in the UAE earlier this year.
It’s also been interesting to look at Tim Paine. No offence intended, but he’s a kid (does he even need to shave?), and we desperately need Haddin back. Who would have thought a year ago that Haddin would become such a key Australian player?
Finally, it’s been interesting to see a new look bowling attack take shape from old elements: Lee, Bracken, Johnson and Hauritz have been around for a while, but my guess is that they are playing together for the first time, and they look to be very complementary and effective to me.
No doubt someone will nitpick that this is a weak Pom side – granted. But they are at home, they keep winning the toss, and they are the team that won the Ashes. So for us to be 3-0 up is a top effort.
There really is some pressure on the returning Ponting to maintain the rage, otherwise even more serious questions will be asked about both his captaincy (Clarke having done well as fill-in) and his batting (White the successful fill-in). It’s always interesting to see great cricketers under pressure, because they will either respond in a great way or else …