In the last week, the calls to get rid of ODIs from the month of January have slowly grown louder, though the most recent comments have emanated from a similar source of frustration.
Trent Woodhill, a Twenty20 list manager and the Melbourne Stars batting coach, has provided some wonderful insights around coaching and the preparations of squad lists over the last month. He’s done this in the IPL, and obviously the BBL, so he knows a fair bit about what works and what doesn’t.
He’s certainly not afraid to criticise Cricket Australia’s approach to coaching, and especially the appointment of coaches. He’s more than happy to refer to the adage that great players don’t necessarily make great coaches, and even watching the Australian Open tennis last week was able to work in a jibe, admiring Novak Djokovic’s natural technique, before adding he was “pretty sure somebody at CA would try and coach it out of him”.
But he also weighed into the traditional scheduling of ODIs recently, commenting on the morning of a Stars game that he wanted to see David Warner in the BBL.
Woodhill is Warner’s personal batting coach, for the record, but that isn’t the major issue here – he also works with Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Peter Handscomb, among others.
Last weekend, following the revelation that the Stars were of the belief all-rounder Marcus Stoinis would be released from the Australian side to play in the game they lost to the Sydney Sixers, Stars CEO Clint Cooper called for urgent discussion around the scheduling.
“I think what we need to do first – clubs, state associations, Cricket Australia and the players’ association need to get together and maybe have some honest, robust discussions about how can we actually make this work more effectively,” he told Fairfax Media.
“I think having the four parties working together, there is certainly a way in which I reckon the calendar can be structured, maybe even better communication between the Australian team and the clubs, to enable some better planning.”
Cooper went on to say he believes the BBL starting earlier in December and extending into February was inevitable, particularly if CA want more T20 games, or even more teams.
But his motivation is obvious: he wants the Test and ODI players in his BBL squad to be available.
In recent games, the Stars have been without Stoinis, Maxwell, Handscomb, James Faulkner and Adam Zampa. They might’ve been without paceman John Hastings, too, if fit.
Cooper has a fair point; why wouldn’t CA want their best players in the BBL?
And there’s only two ways to achieve that: either moving the ODIs, despite the fact they’ve been played in January since Jesus first took the new white ball for Nazareth, or by spreading the BBL out further.
As a BBL team boss, Cooper wants his best possible team playing well, in front of as many people as possible. He’d even argue that more of the former will also increase the latter.
But there’s another side to this, and it’s something Woodhill would be all over as a list manager. The Stars knew going into BBL06 that Maxwell, Faulkner, Zampa and Hastings were a strong chance to play one-day cricket in January. Even if they weren’t sure about Stoinis and had high hopes for Handscomb, having four highly probable international players in an 18-man squad doesn’t leave a lot of room for error.
And now-former Stars captain David Hussey hinted at this in the same Fairfax article.
“Well, yeah, in the future, look at the Thunder, their whole direction is to pick players who are not going to represent Australia. It’s a good direction and they stick to it. We try and pick the best possible talent that we have at our disposal at any one time,” he said, agreeing that the Stars might need to revisit their squad assembly.
Don’t forget, all this was said before the Stars lost a fifth semi-final in six seasons. It would be fair to conclude time hasn’t eased their feelings on this.
On the other side of the coin, a train of thought that I’ve long espoused has gained another follower.
“I do think, though, that Twenty20 cricket should become franchise dominated,” Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur said at the start of the five-game ODI series this month.
“I’ve never been a massive advocate of international Twenty20 cricket except a World Cup every two or three years, because that gets the best players together and they go against each other. International cricket belongs in the 50-over and Test cricket [formats] for me.”
I’ve held this opinion for a long time. Intrigued, I delved into the archive to find the earliest airing:
“If the corporate/domestic T20 competitions around the globe show no sign of retreat, then maybe it’s the international version that can easily be dispensed with,” I wrote back in March 2009 – so long ago that I was still several months away from graduating from the blue side of The Roar, and two years before the first season of the BBL.
Ian Chappell has been with me for nearly as long, and The Roar’s own Jason Gillespie came on board in November 2014, while also calling for four-day Test matches to the trialled.
Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming mentioned the same idea just last November. That’d be Stephen Fleming, the current Melbourne Stars coach, you’ll recall.
Would scrapping T20Is help the Stars?
Maybe. It would definitely free up some calendar room, which might ultimately mean that ODI players can play more – or some – BBL games.
But regardless, and as if five previous successively disappointing BBL finals series wasn’t proof enough, the Stars clearly have bigger problems regarding their recruitment approach than how tight the calendar is.
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
5th Jan 1971 Aus v Eng at MCG was the 1st in Aus
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
First class cricket is the preparation for test cricket not t20 or one dayers. Cutting out the 50 over game at state and int'l level won't change that
sheek
Roar Guru
Completely, completely ignoring the fact players need first class cricket to prepare for test cricket. If T20 is going to be the only preparation for test cricket then the longer form will die out in no time at all because players will lose the skills to play it. Geeeeezzzz....................
sheek
Roar Guru
ODIs in Australia, or World Series Cup, only began in the 1979/80 season, following peace talks between the then ACB & World Series Cricket. Jesus had well & truly retired by then..... Actually the first ODI was played in February 1967 between South Africa & Australia, but for obvious political reasons this match will never be officially recognised as such.
Matth
Guest
This won't happen because ODI's are excellent for advertisers, they are still very popular in India and the ODI World Cup is the ICAA's biggest revenue earner.
Matth
Guest
As I recall he had a very effective mystery ball
KnightsFan
Roar Pro
I would question why ODI are essential? While I would agree test cricket is the tradional format, I alos see T20 as a evolution of the one day format. I also disagree T20 internationals should be scraped. Apart from giving players the oppurtunity to represent there country it is the perfect format to grow the sport. We have seen this in the success of a country like Afghanistan who performed very well at the world T20. It is alos more prone to upsets such as Netherlands beating England and generally provides a format where these countries can compete better.
mds1970
Roar Guru
We've seen in other sports, such as soccer/football, the clash between club and country; where there can be issues around getting clubs to release players to play international matches. We're not yet at that point in cricket, at least not in Australia. The international contracts are lucrative enough that players will make themselves to play internationals. But at some stage, could we see a player make themselves unavailable for a national call-up if it affects their T20 franchise? For someone like Marcus Stoinis, who was never a realistic chance to be in the first XI; would he have preferred to play in the Big Bash rather than be drinks waiter for the ODI team? In the West Indies, where the money is better at T20 franchise level than the international contracts, we routinely see that - just look at the players last summer who would have walked into the West Indies team had they not preferred to play Big Bash. And how much more competitive the West Indies team that won the World T20, with those players available, was compared to the rabble that played the last Australian summer.
KnightsFan
Roar Pro
I strongly agree with you. Test cricket and T20 cover both sides of the market very well. In a crowded schedule dropping the one day format would open up so much room. More focus could be placed on the sheffield shield with hopefully more test players playing the opening rounds. After the completion of the tests the likes of Warner, Smith and Starc can play in the big bash which would lead to even bigger crowds and media intrest. It would also stregthen the depth for when the competiton expands. I am also a big fan of International T20. The T20 World cup was excellent and I personally are far more interested in watching the Australian T20 team then I am the one day team.
Baracuda
Guest
No, if anything Twenty20 cricket should be restricted to domestic status, after all it was never intended to be played internationally when introduced to English county cricket in 2003. Tests and ODIs are the quintessential forms of cricket, grow up and accept it and while we are at it let's admit IT20s are mere domestic league XIs and serve little purpose other than to conjest schedules. Reading the tea leaves, Twenty20 cricket is only heading one way; franchise domination. I would even go as far as scrapping the World Twenty20, replacing it with an icc sanctioned champions cup tournament for franchises, capitalising on the evolution of the format.
Baracuda
Guest
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Peter Z
Guest
Yep, get rid of ODI's in Jan. Did you see the crowd in Adelaide today? Embarrassing. T20 is a superior limited over version. 70-80% agree. Time to bump ODI's to early November / late Feb. Once the T20 world cup takes root, then we can get rid of them altogether.
anon
Roar Pro
How about a season ending BBL all star 3 game series against the Australian team? This Test and ODI series against Pakistan has been utterly pointless. Proved nothing we didn't know already. Warner has played one of the best innings of all time and I couldn't care less. ODI cricket cannibalises the BBL and makes the more entertaining version of the game worse off. Test cricket seems to complement the BBL much better. Test cricket during the day, then BBL at night. I would do away with three match Test series and just make them a two match series, possibly just having one token Test further down the track. Get the one dayers down to no more than three matches in a series. Try to get them out of the way in the space of 5 days. Play the matches on a Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. Could even ship the Indian team over for a short and sharp series like that. Have a triangular T20 international series over the summer, but make players eligible to play the BBL in between internationals. Basketballers play 82 games per year plus playoffs, baseballers 162 games plus playoffs. I'm sure our petals can handle the extra work load.
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
Keep international T20's and get rid of 1st class one dayers and ODI's T20's are now the short version of the game and tests are the 'real' version. 50 over games can go look at BBL crowds!
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
" the fact they’ve been played in January since Jesus first took the new white ball for Nazareth" ODI's started in '71 - Jesus was around then?