How Bilateral ODI Series are Killing ODIs?
Being an avid cricket fan and being a part of the 90s,
it is really heartbreaking to see the slow death of One Day Internationals
(ODIs). Back in 1990s, cricket was all about the ODIs, remember, sandstorm in
Sharjah or the Natwest 2002 Finals, they were epitome of the ODIs. But with the
advent of Twenty20 cricket and with test matches finding its relevance again
(thanks to Virat Kohli and the WTC), ODIs are dying a gradual death. And
bilateral series are one of the major reasons behind this catastrophe.
The ongoing ODI series between India and Zimbabwe
lacks interests from the audiences as it does not have any relevance whatsoever
for a cricket fan in terms of quality of cricket or lack of it. Back in the
days, there happens to be a triangular series that provided competition and
asked for high standards of cricket. But these bilateral ODI series are just
plain without any context, if we keep aside the rankings or the championship
points, which in broader context does not have such bearings on top teams. Personally,
I have lost complete interest in bilateral ODI series and for that matter, it
is important for the ICC and other cricket boards to focus on ways to revive
the ODIs by bringing back in the multi-teams ODI series which will spark the
interests once again for the viewers. The Benson Hedges Cups in Australia
featuring 3-4 teams, or the Titan Cup in 1997 with India, South Africa and
Australia back then were epitome of the cricket with high quality cricket from
the participating sides and the competition it drove between teams.
Another important facet of the bilateral series is
that even when top teams are playing each other, for instance, India or England
or Australia, the interest is more about the individual performances and not
team performances. I personally only see the final scores and the final series
results, in terms of cricket being played on the ground, does not add up much. Moreover,
top teams these days only are playing very limited ODIs and even when they
play, it does not provide much context. These top teams are playing with the lesser
teams so to balance the inflow of revenues in those cricket deprived nations, which
in hindsight is good for the expansion of cricket, but the top teams when plays
lesser teams, they only send their fringe players to test their bench strengths
so that they can fit in more players into the probable lists for marquee
tournaments. This effectively degrades the quality of cricket and hence, the
overall importance of ODIs.
A quadrangular series featuring India, Australia,
England and Pakistan will bring in enhanced viewership for the stakeholders of the
games and will spark a renewed interests in the minds and hearts of the cricket
lovers. Yes, there are world cups across formats, but a limited team ODI series
gives different vibes altogether and that is what ODIs needs now, a revived interest
and a context apart from the super league points or anything. Back in the days,
the Sharjah Cup or the Benson and Hedges Cup down under every year were
providing peak interest for the cricket fans but that interest for the ODIs has
gone down severely and now we are looking at the slow death of ODIs and that effectively
irks me being an avid cricket fan.
There also are many other reasons for the decline of
viewership for ODIs, however, they are more technical as it requires tweaking
of the format, however, arranging multi-team series is not a technical need, it
is more of generating impact for a series. It is important that these bilateral
series between teams need to be restricted and more of triangular or
quadrangular ODI series being organized so that cricket lovers and fans can
watch their favorite teams competing and showcasing high class cricket. This essentially
is the need of the hour not only for the ODIs but also for the millions of
cricket fans across the world, especially for people like us from the 90s.
