The Cricket World Cup has been billed as Cricket’s greatest prize for some time now but faces stiff competition for its place of prominence in the modern game.
The spectacle of T20 cricket and its glitzy professional leagues draws the eye of fans looking for something more exciting and modern while the ICC’s efforts to ensure the survival of Test cricket has helped fuel the creation of a new core of traditionalist fans.
One-day Internationals are currently locked in something of an identity crisis. ODI cricket is trapped somewhere between Test cricket and T20Is and seemingly cannot decide which direction to go.
For years the ODI game has trended towards a T20 direction, after all, it is the format that gave rise to the game’s shortest international format. The ICC and MCC have treated the two as close siblings distantly related to their cousin, Test cricket.
In formulating rules and playing conditions governing bodies have sought to promote free run-scoring in the belief that fans want to see batsmen go berserk in white-ball cricket. Test cricket has continued to be true to its name. Batsmen are forced to defend for long periods of time.
ODI cricket used to have periods when batsmen would be forced onto the defensive but the decision to use two new balls as well as ever-more intricate fielding restrictions have sought to stamp that out.
As a result, ODI cricket is finding it difficult to maintain an identity distinct to that of the T20 game. ODIs are at risk of becoming longer T20Is with bowlers being treated as cannon-fodder.
With ODI cricket hovering in the space it does right now it begs the question, is the Cricket World Cup still the game’s ultimate prize.
In the next three years all three formats will crown a World Champion, the ODI champs in just a few days, T20I champions in Australia next year, and the World Test Championship rounds off its inaugural multi-year campaign at a venue to be confirmed in 2021.
ODI cricket’s uncertain place in the world leaves the oldest international tournament at risk of becoming irrelevant. The format may be between Tests and T20Is but it is much closer to its popular hit and giggle sibling. That position means that is at risk of losing relevance as T20I cricket continues to grow.
The ICC has made it clear that it sees T20I cricket as the vehicle through which the game will grow while Test cricket will remain a bastion of the game’s elite for as long as the sport’s administrators can continue to sell TV or content rights for the format.
T20I cricket has its specialists, as does Test cricket but very few players, if any, players devote themselves exclusively to the ODI game.
Cricket is headed to a bi-polar future, whether that is good or bad depends on how you feel about ODI cricket and its continued existence. The more T20I cricket is played the greater the pressure on players and boards will be to minimize ODI cricket. The game’s elite will do their damndest to ensure Test cricket doesn’t fade into nothing, but the same is not true of the ODI for. Those running the game have had no qualms using the format to experiment with the game.
In the next three year’s we will get an excellent idea of where all three formats are and might be able to tell whether the Cricket World Cup, as an ODI tournament, has a future at all. It is unlikely though that anyone could support the notion that a ten-team tournament in the format would represent the best spectacle or the greatest challenge.
