With the growing popularity of T20 leagues and T20Is, clouds are hovering over the future of ODI cricket. Many feel that the 50-over format is time consuming and want the ICC to completely abolish it.
Many empty seats in the opening match of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 between England and New Zealand also added fuel to the debate.
Amid the hue and cry, India head coach Rahul Dravid on Friday (October 6) acknowledged that the sport wouldn't go back to playing as many ODI matches as they once did.
However, Dravid, who represented his country in 344 ODIs, hoped that the format would continue to be played and valued.
"I mean we haven't played a lot of 50-overs cricket over the last couple of years, that's one of the things that I have kind of noticed over the couple of years that I have been the coach of the team. Because there were two T20 WCs that happened and there is always the World Test Championship at the back of every team that you are doing, it's a cycle that goes on," Dravid was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
"Sometimes, this format over the last couple of years, maybe it's because of Covid, I can't exactly say, but it's just felt like we haven't played a lot of ODI cricket and even when we played it, except over the last few months, we are probably prioritising other things and having to protect our players and manage our players maybe in this format.
"Going forward, I think it's still an important format, it's a fantastic format to play. Obviously how much of it is played will be decided by a variety of factors... Obviously with more and more T20 cricket being added on to the calendar, it will make it difficult to potentially have the same number of one-day games that you probably are used to seeing between the 2015 and 2019 calendar. I don't think we will ever go back to those days but I sincerely hope that we still keep valuing and playing this format..."
The former India skipper cited the examples of Mohammed Siraj's sensational spell in the Asia Cup 2023 final and the partnership between Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra to put forward his point.
"I mean that was really top-class bowling of six [7] overs. In a T20 game you never see that, you would have bowled one or two overs or maybe three overs on a good day.
"But here you got to see a full gamut of his skills and his abilities which I think one-day cricket allows you to do that, allows you to see great spells, it still allows you to see good innings like that we saw from both those left-handers [Conway and Ravindra], it allows to you see a lot of good spin, rotation of strike and a lot of creativity. As a coach and as someone who loves the game of cricket, I want to see this format thrive and do well," Dravid remarked.
(Cricbuzz Inputs)
