If you took just this particular site as a narrow sample of all the cricketing comment available on the internet, it would still take you quite a while to collate all of the anti-one-day-international opinion.
Not that there is anything wrong with being opposed to the 50-over game, after all it will never be everybody’s cup of tea. But in the modern age there is substantially more negativity thrown its way than positive ramblings.
‘It’s too dull a game’, ‘the bat is too dominant’, ‘spectators aren’t interested’, ‘it isn’t Twenty20′ are all points which can be argued and none are necessarily wrong – certainly the last one in a literal sense – but I don’t buy into it.
One-day cricket has differing demands but is none the duller for that; the bat may be dominant but if you negate the ‘dullness’ then you’re leading directly to this; some spectators are interested are but unfortunately not enough; and no one-day cricket isn’t T20 and neither should it be.
ODI cricket has suffered from a couple of factors which far outweigh all others, namely those of saturation and the fixation with the shortest format. I’m no economics expert and I still can’t fathom why I chose to study the subject at school, but I do realise that when supply outstrips demand you have an issue.
The same trend will hit Twenty20 cricket if those doing the organising aren’t careful. Popularity now doesn’t guarantee the same in years to come, and there is enough evidence to bear this out.
But to turn the focus onto the World Cup, it has been refreshing to see healthy attendances in the majority of games and stadia fit to bursting in others.
I watched highlights of New Zealand against Sri Lanka from Wellington’s ‘Cake Tin’ a few weeks ago and if you paid to get in you would have had the choice of a few thousand seats. Fast forward to the other day when England showed up and there wasn’t the room to give the proverbial cat a 360-degree twirl.
The reason? Context.
Games that mean little in the greater scheme of things, especially when they’re coming on the back of others that have been of similar consequence, will not attract the attention of the masses.
The bastardisation of international cricket into a large and seemingly endlessly milkable cash cow can only result in diminishing returns, the scenario that is regularly played out the world over with no sign of cessation. But give the contests a reason and a tangible end result, and hey presto, an event that the public can, and will want to, get involved in.
It’s no different with the 20-over game. The Big Bash and IPL, competitions with a structure and purpose which are heavily promoted, get people through the gates.
Contrast this with the Champions League, a tacked-on, shallow, meaningless, uneven advertising and TV honeytrap which might as well be played on the moon for the number who deem it worthy of parting with their hard-earned.
It is why I find the calls to abolish ODI cricket premature. If it truly was on its death bed, would South Africa against India at the MCG pull in 90,000 punters? Would New Zealand versus Sri Lanka pack out Hagley Oval? Could England against Scotland, on the far side of the planet, draw a sizeable gathering? I won’t go on because the answer should be fairly apparent.
Those charged with doing the administrative work have plenty on their plate, and pleasing everybody is a close-on unattainable target, but if they could achieve one thing in the near future it should be to give the ODI its relevance back.
The four-yearly pivot of the World Cup is in place and the Champions Trophy, having been killed off, is back on the schedules. Two events with a trophy at the end and the ability to make or break coaches, captains and reputations.
Context really is everything. To slightly twist the words of Kevin Costner from Field of Dreams: “Build (apply) it and they will come.” Continue to ignore the obvious and they won’t.
It seems franchise cricket has forgotten about the great battle between bat and ball. In fact, this season in the IPL there is no battle at all.
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