The former 1983 World Cup Winner Kapil Dev had some words to say to the International Cricket Council regarding the importance of ODI cricket.
In a recent interview with (The Sydney Morning Herald), Kapil Dev on ODI cricket stated that “I think it’s fading out. The International Cricket Council has a bigger responsibility how to manage this game. It’s going the way as football in Europe. They don’t play against each country. It is once in four years (during the World Cup). Is this what we’re going to have, the World Cup and the rest of the time playing club (T20 franchise) cricket?.”
Nowadays with the growth of different T20 leagues the main traditional format of the game like ODI’s is dissolving with the new era of cricket emerging.
There are multiple T20 leagues played across the globe and players are nowadays preferring to play for a domestic franchisee as they are getting paid more and the marketing is also more in those leagues where private investors are gaining the profits.
Kapil Dev, the 1983 ODI World Cup winning captain, was guest of honor at the India-Australia Strategic Alliance dinner celebrating 75 years of Indian Independence in Sydney where he was speaking about the new leagues in UAE and South Africa.
He even went on to say that “Similarly, will cricketers eventually be playing mainly the IPL or the Big Bash or something like that? So the ICC have to put more time into that to see how they can ensure the survival of one-day cricket, Test match cricket, not only club cricket.”
Players like Ben Stokes have decided to retire from the ODI format and focus more on T20Is and tests due to busy schedules. Recently Trent Boult has asked the New Zealand board to release him from the contract so that he can play more T20 leagues, players leaving the ODI format for the shorter format of the game is shocking and the ICC should need to do something regarding this issue.
The Importance of ODI cricket must live on forever as it is one of the oldest formats of the game where most of the history, tradition, and culture are hidden, so every governing cricket authority needs to protect the ODI format by regularly conducting tournaments and promoting the ODI matches positively.
