‘Won’t Be Helpful’ ABD Cancels Rohit’s ‘Advice’ To Save ODIs & His Opinion Makes More Sense
The emergence of franchise cricket and players opting to play for their club over their country is a worrying sign for international cricket as a whole. There are three formats of the game but one that has seen a lot of dip in popularity as compared to others is One-Day Internationals.
Ever since T20 cricket arrived, it took away all the limelight from the 50-over format and with franchise leagues, where top talents come and play T20s, taking place all over the world, the demand and viewership of ODIs has taken a hit.
The logic of fans nowadays is simple that if they can watch a cricket match and get the result in a little over three hours, why would they spend seven hours watching the same sport?
India’s all-format captain Rohit Sharma recently came up with a solution to save ODI cricket and said that if the ICC can look to bring back the triangular series, which used to be a regular feature in ODIs back in the day, it will give players enough time to rest and generate more interest among fans.
“There was a time, when we were kids, I grew up, I watched a lot of tri-series or quadrangular series, but that has completely stopped. I think that can be a way forward so that there is enough time for a team to recover and get back,” Rohit had said.
Cancelling out Rohit’s advice, former South Africa captain AB de Villiers downplayed the suggestion made by India skipper and said that it would have minimal impact on the life of ODI cricket.
The South African great recently gave an interview to NDTV where he spoke about the decreasing popularity of ODI cricket.
“It seems clear that T20 cricket will continue to grow and grow, inevitably at the expense of other formats,” he said. When asked whether tri-series can help ODI cricket, de Villiers said: “I think the impact would be minimal.”
The 38-year-old also added that international cricket would stay alive as long as it generates revenue but he also opined that global franchises will play a key role to evolve the game.
