Legendary Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar added his opinion to the debate over how ODI cricket can be made interesting again amid the ODIs increasingly getting shunned due to the rise of T2os and in a bid to preserve the traditional Test cricket. Tendulkar stated that a large part of ODI games have become monotonous and suggested making a few dynamic changes to the format, including reducing it to a 40-over-a-side game.
Tendulkar said that the game seems dull between the 15th and 40th overs. He suggested that it might be better to create a situation where both teams bowl in both halves of the game. Tendulkar’s former teammate and former Indian batter Ajay Jadeja had a rather hilarious take on the situation, saying that it seems that teams are no longer interested in taking the match to 40 overs.
During a recent chat on Cricbuzz, Ajay Jadeja joked, “The master has made his statement, there are no doubts on that. But the thing is those who have played have accepted that. They have stopped that game between the 15th and 40th overs. They are not even going till there. All the problems that we had with predictability, boring, they are all gone now.” Jadeja was referring to the first two ODIs between India and Australia.
Speaking to Sports Tak amid the ongoing ODI series, Sachin Tendulkar opined that ODI cricket is getting monotonous before suggesting a way to make the format more entertaining. Tendulkar asserted that the concept of two new balls (per innings) has kind of eliminated reverse swing. The batting legend also observed that the 50-over format is ‘heavy on bowlers’.
Commenting on the same, Ajay Jadeja said, “Tendulkar sahab said that 15-40 over period is getting boring, these guys said we won’t even play until the 40th over. People of a certain generation would remember that this one day cricket used to happen at one time without a 30-yard circle.”
He further explained, “You could send all nine fielders to- the boundary. That became boring so the concept of the circle was brought in, and then to compensate for conditions in Australia, two new balls were brought in. Back when one day cricket started it used to be played with the red ball and that made the game entirely different.”
Earlier, former Indian head coach, Ravi Shastri opined that in order for One-day cricket to survive, the white-ball format should be reduced to a 40-over game in future. Shastri had highlighted that ODIs used to be a 60-over-a-side contest when Kapil Dev guided Team India to World Cup glory in 1983. Shastri stated that since the attention span of the people diminished, the ODIs became a 50-over game at the time.
“This format has changed according to the period it was played in and different kinds of teams won or lost matches. You cannot change the science, the 22 yards and the five-and-a-half ounce remains the same but the nature of the seam and how it has behaved after making contact with the pitch has changed with the ball. So one year players had Marutis in their hands and the next Ferraris and then we would think the guy with the Ferrari is going pretty fast. This game has kept on changing and today the boys showed,” Jadeja concluded.
