Sport24 columnist Arthur Turner (File)

Arthur Turner

Is One Day International cricket as we know it on death row and facing extinction? If one listens to the International Cricket Council and administrators from some of the leading nations in world cricket it seems like it. Cricket Australia has said that the 2015 Cricket World Cup scheduled for Australia is not marketable in its current form.

The England Cricket Board has scarped their domestic 50-over competition and replaced it with a 40-over game. Cricket South Africa has stated that the MTN Domestic Championships (45 overs) will be used to experiment with innovative changes that can possibly later be implemented at international level. The general thought it seems is to play the limited overs game with each team having two innings and reducing the number of overs.

There is no logical reason for radical change to ODI cricket as there is nothing wrong with it in its current form. The addition of a batting power play has enhanced ODI cricket and made the game a lot more interesting. What the administrators should be considering is to add a bowling power play. 

The worst decision the administrators can make is to reduce the length or structure of ODI cricket and create an additional shorter version of the game. If they believe that ODI cricket has reached its shelf date rather scrap it than create another product.

Cricket owes its healthy position in the world today to the success of the 50-over game the last 40 years. One has only to look at the recent South Africa v Australia ODI series and the current England v Australia series to see that the 50-over game remains successful.

However, over exposure remains a threat to ODI cricket. An example of this is the current seven-match series between England and Australia. It is far too long. Next season England will be playing no less than 13 ODIs at home, three against Bangladesh, five against Australia and five against Pakistan.

The ICC needs to protect the game against over exposure by limiting all ODI series’ to five matches and no more than a maximum of eight ODIs per home season. This will ensure the sustainability of the 50-over game both with regards the interest of the fans and commercially.

Then there is the ongoing debate about the number and quality of the teams playing ODI cricket. Once again, like Test cricket, the credibility of the ODI game is being undermined by nations who should not be playing at this level.

The ICC should scrap the Champions Trophy after the South African event as it's a meaningless tournament. The World Cup should be the only 50-over ICC event; this will further ensure the sustainability of this form of the game. Between World Cup’s the ICC can schedule two World Twenty20 events. This will not only satisfy their commercial partners, but also give the 20-over game its rightful place in international cricket.

There is no doubt that there is place for all three forms of the game in their current form, provided that they are well structured and managed. World cricket today is in better shape than at any time in its long history, so why try and fix something that isn't broken?

Arthur is a former cricket administrator and current player agent.

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