Shane Warne has finally called for what many people connected with cricket have been thinking for a long time, a cutback in the amount of one-day international cricket. Since the introduction of Twenty20 cricket in 2003, interest has dwindled year on year in the 50-over form of the game. Warne believes the removal of one-day cricket entirely from the international cricket calendar except for the World Cup, held every four years, would benefit the future of the international game.
His criticism of the ICC’s continued support of the 50-over format comes on the back of Andrew Strauss’s omission from England’s upcoming test series in Bangladesh for reasons of fatigue. Whether people believe the captain should be present or not under the circumstances, Strauss would surely have made the tour if the ICC had got their act together before now.
Given there is much more interest in the Twenty20 format of the game, it seems baffling that England have 15 home limited-over internationals scheduled for this summer, only 2 of them being Twenty20 matches. Even the County Ground in Bristol will struggle to be at capacity on the morning of the 10th July to see the 50-over encounter between England and Bangladesh.
The ongoing presence of the needless ICC Champions Trophy – a competition that would be significant but isn’t because the World Cup is more important (a classic comparison would be the Champions League and Europa League in football) – every two years, is a further example of unnecessarily hindering international schedules.
It is incontestable that 50-over international cricket is in a sorry state. The ICC have tinkered with rules such as the introduction of substitutes and different stages of ‘powerplay’ but now have to accept that although arguably less technical and a more individualist rather than team performance needed for success, Twenty20 cricket is what people want to, and have time to watch.
The removal of one-day international cricket, although hard to contemplate due to the ICC’s stubborn view of the format, would have serious implications on the domestic scene. The ECB have already scrapped the national 50-over and ‘Pro40’ competitions for the 2010 season, introducing a revamped 40-over competition while also expanding the Twenty20 competition to incorporate more fixtures. The two-division 4-day county championship remains untouched.
With the inevitability of one-day international cricket dying out as people will increasingly make their thoughts heard with their attendance, I see the future simply lying with two competitions, in Twenty20 and 4-day format. Although 4-day county cricket, at least in terms of gates, is dead in England, it is a vital stepping stone for players to enter the currently thriving test match arena, still considered to be the ultimate cricketing format, the Ashes an event which is treasured in this country.
With Twenty20 now proven to be the most marketable format of cricket, shown by the surge of interest in the competition between newly developed franchises, the ICC need to react and take note of what the public want before losing all credibility and the future of competition internationally.
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