“Make ODI cricket a 40-over format, it has remained a 50-over format for too long,” Ravi Shastri reckons time period of ODI cricket needs to be reduced
Ravi Shastri recalled the era of 80s when the time period of ODIs was reduced from 60 overs to 50 overs and insisted that it can be done again
The former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri is of the view that there should be a change made in the time span of One Day International (ODI) cricket and it shouldn’t be played over a period of 50 overs anymore. It should be brought down to 40 overs.
Referring to the era of 80s, Ravi Shastri said on Fancode that there have been changes made earlier too. When the ODI cricket originally started, it used to be played over a period of 60 overs.
In fact, when India had won their first ever ODI World Cup in 1983 in England, it was a tournament of 60 overs and not 50 overs, but then there was a feeling among the fans that 60-over was too much of a drag and the overs were reduced from 60 to 50 and 50-over cricket gained its own popularity thereafter.
But, Shastri reckons the time period of ODI cricket has stuck at 50 overs for a long time now and there is the same feeling among the fans again that it’s getting dragged. So, why can’t it be reduced to 40 overs now?
Like Ravi Shastri, Shahid Afridi also wants ODI cricket to be turned into a 40-over format
These remarks of Ravi Shastri fall in line with the remarks made by the former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi, who also said on SAMAA TV recently that ODI cricket should be 40-over cricket now, rather than 50-over cricket.
Ravi Shastri agrees with Shahid Afridi on reducing ODI's from 50 to 40 overs.
Said there's no harm in shortening the game time. Earlier it was 60 overs and people found that overs 20-40 were hard to digest then they changed it to 50 and it has stayed on 50 for too long #WIvIND pic.twitter.com/avXSFnbsdc— Abhijeet ♞ (@TheYorkerBall) July 25, 2022
Like some other pundits, Ravi Shastri doesn’t think that ODI cricket should be scrapped altogether. He recently insisted on Sky Sports that the game of cricket can’t be spread to the smaller nations through test matches because test matches are too expensive to host and it might not be sustainable for smaller nations. It can only be done through white ball cricket.
But, Shastri, at the same time, admits that something has to be done about the monotonous nature of ODI cricket and one of the things that can be done is reducing its time period.
