Former India coach and 1983 World Cup winner Ravi Shastri reiterated the statement made by former Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi and said that the time is ripe for the one-day format to be reduced to 40 overs per side from 50 overs.
This has come after England all-rounder Ben Stokes sent shockwaves across the cricketing community by retiring from ODIs recently at the age of 31 citing that the workload of playing in all three formats of the game was too much for his body to handle.
Earlier Afridi had spoken on the same lines during his interview with Samaa TV after Stokes' retirement.
“One-day cricket has become quite boring now. I would suggest to cut ODI cricket from 50 overs to 40 overs in order to make it entertaining,” he had said.
These words were repeated by Ravi Shastri during his commentary stint in the 2nd ODI between India and West Indies on Fan Code. Shastri, like Afridi, felt that the format should be reduced to 40 overs now.
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He cited that when ODIs were first conceived they were 60 overs, even when India won the World Cup in 1983. But when ODIs primarily moved out of England they were reduced to 55 overs a side and gradually were reduced to 50 overs.
“There is no harm in shortening the span of the game. When one-day cricket started, it was of 60 overs. When we won the World Cup in 1983, it was of 60 overs. After that, people thought that 60 overs were a bit too long. People found that span of overs between 20 to 40 hard to digest. So they reduced it from 60 to 50. So years have gone by now since that decision so why not reduce it from 50 to 40 now. Because you got to be forward-thinking and evolve. It stayed for 50 for too long," he said.
(Fancode inputs)
