50-over cricket needs a bullet

If you believe the chattering, this Champions Trophy tournament is going to be the saviour of 50-over cricket. Puh-lease. It wasn’t so long ago that the CT was the embarrassment of the international schedule. Really, if the format is dependent on this tournament, then it is already dead on its feet. Put a bullet in its head.

The shortcomings of 50-over cricket have been well outlined. To that I would like to add that the existence of the Duckworth-Lewis system is powerful evidence that the game is fundamentally flawed. But the problem isn’t so much the format of single 50-over innings. There is something rotten about the very idea of ODI cricket. If it is possible to simultaneously schedule the excruciatingly over-long 7-match Eng-Aus series and the offensively short NZ-SL-Ind tri-series, the format is the wrong tool for the wrong job.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 6:48 amand is filed under 09 Champions Trophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “50-over cricket needs a bullet”

  • Jon Says:
    September 25th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    I like the structure of the ICC Champions Trophy a lot more than the bloated World Cup myself.

    If I was in charge, I would drop both T20s (too short) and ODIs (too long) – and start up Thirty30 matches, the sweet spot between.

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