We cricket pundits are a funny beast. We like to sook and cry about the smallest things.
‘Flat pitches are killing cricket’
‘The DRS isn’t accurate’
‘The IPL is bad for Test cricket’
However, my personal favourite is that ‘ODI cricket is dead.’
Since the dramatic onslaught of T20, those with an opinion on the game have jumped on a specific bandwagon. The one that is heading to All Three Forms Of The Game Can’t Co-ExistVille.
The rationale is that Test cricket is for the purists and T20 is for the current generation. ODIs, using a classical marketing term, are ‘stuck in the middle’. Neither one nor the other. It has no unique selling proposition. It is cricket’s equivalent of elevator music.
Yet, the recent World Cup in Australia gave us glimpses of what the game could be. Although most games were lopsided, moments of joy and intrigue still appeared.
The World Cup taught us that 350 or even 400 is the new black. The days of putting up 260+ are gone. The game is now more productive. More efficient. It is like a Japanese six sigma factory – it continues to improve.
Even England, in ‘New Era version 355*’ are managing to compete with the big boys. Yes, even England.
The marvellous Richie Benaud taught the theory that a team should aim to double its score after 30 overs. That figure has now drifted out to 33, 34 or even 35 overs now. Batsmen are brutal. Bowlers are fish in a barrel.
The crowds are back. TV audiences are back. Kerry Packer is smiling from the heavens. ODI cricket has rediscovered its mojo.
T20 is clearly the instigator of this resurgence. Its peculiarities have ensured that batsmen are not afraid to hit out or lose their wicket.
The current ODI rules are heavily stacked in the favour of the batsmen. 20 overs of powerplay per innings means plenty of gaps in the outfield. Players can hit lofted shots without fear.
Two new balls, while giving the bowling team a better chance to breakthrough early, also ensures that runs flow easier. The ball retains its hardness and shape. At the end of the innings, it is still only 25 overs old.
The ODI format can get even better.
Shane Warne has suggested removing all fielding restrictions, powerplays and bowler over quotas. This puts the strategy of attack and defence clearly in the hands of the captains.
Pure cricket.
It makes sense.
To balance out the run making, bowlers need to believe that that can still attack and have a chance to take wickets. No matter what the format of the game, wickets win matches.
For all the good in the recent ODI renaissance, the boring middle overs still remain. Batsmen just hit harder at the end of the innings. Instead of 6 runs an over, they aim for 10 or 12. Removing fielding restrictions should help end that. The bowling captain will have options. He can change the game just like in Test cricket.
At the moment he is limited. The boring middle overs are therefore hard coded into the ODI DNA. This is a major problem.
However, there are other risks with this resurgence of the One Day game.
Under the current system, ODIs allow a non Test-playing nation to aim for something. Four of them qualified for the World Cup. Many others tried and failed. However, the fact that they tried at all logically ensures that the ODI format has a strategic place in the sport.
But can Afghanistan or The Netherlands seriously dream of competing against a team like England who has just hit four consecutive scores of 300+ against World Cup runners up New Zealand? If they can’t, why bother investing resources into chasing ODI status? The ICC don’t even want them at the next World Cup. Is it not better to develop a T20 team and allow your players to chase an IPL or Big Bash dream?
Perhaps ODI cricket, through its re-found place in the the minds of fans, is actually on a faster path to oblivion? Perhaps, rather than differentiating itself from Test and T20 formats, it is actually morphing into a longer, more boring version of the twenty over game?
Maybe it is the cricketing equivalent of a dying star. It will suddenly shine brightly, before rapidly shrinking and exploding, leaving behind it a black hole of emptiness. Its greatness only known by those old timers who were around to see it in its heyday.
ODI cricket no longer produces the heroes that Test cricket forgot: Simon O’Donnell, Michael Bevan, Clint McKay and Jonty Rhodes.
Instead, that role has been assumed by T20. ODI cricket still tries to, but these heroes don’t last long.
Chris Gayle is now T20s mistress. Mitchell Starc and David Warner now belong to Test cricket. Perhaps only AB de Villiers has managed to straddle multiple duties. But there has never before been a bloke like AB de Villiers.
ODI cricket is back. ODI cricket is sexy again.
But how long can it last?
Stephen Martin
Guest
A view from a proper English cricket writer...it's great to watch, but just what the rest of the world has been doing for years. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/11689112/Englands-one-day-international-series-defeat-of-New-Zealand-must-be-only-the-start-of-the-great-revolution.html
Bobbo7
Guest
Give him time. Hesson seems to be a pretty good operator and I presume he has had input. This series is a joke for bowlers. And maybe NZ could not afford a better candidate
Andy
Guest
Except it's in a British paper aimed at English readers. So the article should be taken from that perspective . This is a totally different brand of cricket from the dross England served up in the World Cup . And yes, English fans are loving it. And yes we have loved the whole series including tests against NZ who play cricket the right way and in the right spirit.
CW
Guest
"T20 is the instigator" of the resurgence of ODI cricket. Got it in one. Not so sure the game is better for it though. ODI is now going the way of T20. A bash fest. Gotta feel for the poor old bowler. Cannon fodder. No room for trundlers or hackers in this game. Today's ODI bowler has to have the same bag of tricks as the best magicians. Or he is redundant. There is no doubt that, out of necessity, ODI cricket is nurturing a new breed of bowler. Slow bouncers, wide slow balls, straight slow balls, wide fast balls. They all have to be in the fast bowler's armory in short format cricket.
JimmyB
Guest
Well it's certainly not a prize winning article, however we all see what we want to see I suppose. I read the article from the perspective that he was relating the 'rules' to England and English cricket, rather than the wider world, although of course that wasn't explicit in the article and could therefore be used as a stick to beat him with. Ronan, perhaps he's onto something though, because you refer to the WC, however in this series both sides have gone hard from the off, not really letting up. England scored nearly 100 in the first 10 overs in the last match.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
I haven't come across that writer from the Telegraph before but that is a really strange piece on what he says are the major changes to the way ODIs are now played which have been highlighted in this Eng v NZ series. His first point was bizarre: "Old rule - Keep wickets in hand, and bat your overs. New rule - Runs. Score runs. Score as many runs as you can, as quickly as you can." Yet, throughout the recent World Cup we saw the opposite of what he's observing. Teams were content to be 2-175 after 35 overs on a high scoring track because they backed themselves to make 150-170 off the last 15 overs. Opposite of what he wrote, the OLD model was to sprint from the start. Now, everyone pretty much apart from one batsman in one team, tries to ride out the first 15 overs when the two new balls are dangerous and then cash in later. And this statement from him made me choke: "Old rule - Test cricket and ODIs are moving further and further apart. New rule - Good players are good players, whatever the format." Huh? He's reporting upon a series in which England are finally competitive after ditching the model he claims works and finally picking an ODI side based solely on limited overs merit not Test achievement. Really strange article.
JimmyB
Guest
It's absolutely your prerogative to sneer, but you're in danger of seeming very smug and self satisfied. (not to mention incredibly juvenile -"creaming themselves"- seriously?) Not sure if you saw England during the WC and if you've seen anything of this series, but it's night and day.
fp11
Guest
This.
Don Freo
Guest
If any sport wants a shot in the arm, let Australia and New Zealand host it. We know how to do it for sports' sake. I LOVE ODI...always have. Love Test cricket even more. Love Shield cricket more than all of it. T20 is fun but it is only cricket in the same way that Bingo is Maths.
Randall Boggs
Guest
Mascarenas has just finished playing and he wasn't up to snuff as an international player anyway, he just doesn't have the gravitas and experience for this role. I would have liked for the role to be opened up to a wider pool of candidates, rather that just usher Mascarenas in without much of a process. I expect our test attack to slowly drift off the boil under this guy.
Johnno
Guest
ODI cricket is not back, it's not sexy again. It's only good in the World Cup. And let's be honest, the WC 2015 alot of the group games were sleepy affairs, and a long drawn out tournament, that only got exciting come the finals stages. For me the exciting group games were the NZ V Aust group game at Eden Park and games the Associate/minnows nations played, and a few upsets eg England V Bangladesh. The WC should of been cut to 3-4weeks. And still ODI cricket is plagued by problems: -Games are too high scoring -Modern bats -Short boundary ropes -Time-wasting some ODI games can last 8-hours -Bowlers being used as cannon fodder, on lifeless pitches and bouncer restrictions eg make 3-bouncers an over -scrap power plays
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Hilarious! The writer really seems to think that England are coming up with something new rather than trying to catch up to what everyone else has been doing for the last couple of years!
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
It's actually only 15 overs of powerplay per innings. The first 10 overs and then 5 overs that the batting side have to take by over 40 (ie have completed by over 40). When they first brought in the "batting powerplay" they also had a bowling one, which bowling sides more often than not just got out of the way as soon as possible, making it the first 15 overs being powerplay overs. While all the talk is about how batting is dominating the bowling and bowlers are "fish in a barrel" it's actually the teams with the best bowlers that are winning. What the current rules do is make it hard for second-rate bowlers to survive. The difference between the best bowlers and the mediocre bowlers has become drastically exaggerated. Look at the bowling figures of the top 10 bowlers at the world cup and you wouldn't think it was a batting dominated game. The four semi-finalists were the four best bowling attacks. The finalists were the two best bowling attacks, and the winners were the best bowling attack. That's basically what it came down to!
Bobbo7
Guest
With you Targa - I do fear the loss of Bond as the bowling coach. Guys like Southee flurished under Bond. But to be fair to the new bloke, I'll give him time. The games and decks at the moment make stick cricket look hard. Good to see England playing better too - though the loss of Anderson and Boult are huge for the NZ outfit. Anderson as a genuine allrounder gives the team great balance and his loss is apparent. But I do like the look of the new blokee - Saunter? And my boy Kane is still carving up the runs. I love watching this kid bat - I will get shot down for this but I reckon he is right up there with the most controlled and tempered batsman i have ever seen.
Jake
Guest
"And Aussie media seem to deride other nations who aren’t England." On the contrary, England are (rightly some might say) derided all the time. SA, NZ etc are shown far more respect by the Australia media because they are good sides.
hubert smith
Roar Rookie
I would love to see no bowling restrictions in ODI's or make at least 12 overs per bowler.And perhaps making the final 10 overs a bigger spectacle by flashing the importance of it around the grounds and on television e.g signs displaying "It's the final ten!".
Jake
Guest
The english supporters and newspapers are creaming themselves at the moment. They are carrying on as if they've invented a new form of One Day cricket after blasting the Black Caps 2nd string bowling attack. It really is hilarious stuff. According to the Telegraph, the England v New Zealand odi series has ripped up the book on how to play One Day cricket and replaced it with something unheard of. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/11683922/The-six-new-rules-of-one-day-international-cricket.html
Tyrone
Guest
Why do people keep saying this? It is still popular in SA, Eng, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Randall Boggs
Guest
Agree on your point that limiting the number of T20 internationals is a good way of keeping interest in the format high. Meanwhile, 2 test series's are killing the test game, even though sides that aren't England / Australia / India have shown that they can compete. Where the glut of test matches is coming is in the be-all-and-end-all Ashes. England were smashed to smithereens from 1989 to 2005, yet somehow we are now at the point where it is seeingly an Ashes series every year, and it's 5 tests minimum to boot. This over-supply of Ashes cricket will eventually degrade interest in this 'product', and surely Flintoffs England team to Australia didn't need to play 5 tests....after 3 hidings it was evident who the better team was. South Africa for one deserve longer and more frequent series's in Australia, ditto NZ. Australia need to be more mindful of reviving other rivalries, rather than being so England-centric. Test cricket can't be a 3 nation sport. It seems no real marketing is spent by CA on promoting other rivalries. And Aussie media seem to deride other nations who aren't England.
Targa
Guest
As gutted as I am about NZ's terrible ODI bowling at the moment - losing Bond as bowling coach and have our best odi bowlers injured, tired, or retired doesn't help - it is good to see England is competitive at last. Even better Bangladesh has turned into an excellent ODI side - just thrashed India yesterday. It looks like either Pakistan or the West Indies won't even qualify for the Champions Trophy now.