Cricket Australia to introduce Split-innings Cricket
One-day international cricket in its common form could soon become a story of the past after the Cricket Australia board gave the green signal to a trial of split-innings national games in the coming summer. If the new format proves to be successful, Cricket Australia will bring the idea to the International Cricket Council (ICC) as a plan to keep ODIs alive. Hence the cricket fans can expect the 2015 World Cup featuring a split-innings format.
No decision has yet been taken regarding the number of overs each innings would have - four innings, each of either 20 or 25 overs are expected. Cricket Australia will finalize the concept in the next few weeks.
The chief executive of CA James Sutherland said the innovation was planned to preserve all three formats of cricket, by making the middle portion of 50-over innings more predictable.
"It provides a mechanism by which in the eyes of the consumer we can distinguish the one-day game a little bit more from the T20 format of the game," Sutherland said. "There's no doubt that there's some feedback there that suggests that parts of the one-day game are a little bit predictable. That's certainly something that we are looking to address.
He further added that the most important aspect that has come back as the feedback from cricket fans and also from the perspective of television audience is that by having split innings. Both teams will bat in the evening after the dinner break and this would be a very significant point of this format for those who might be going to the game or coming home after work.
The split-innings cricket concept was trialled this year in England's county 2nd XI competition and Sutherland said the response from cricket fans has had a major role in the further advancement of the concept.
The increasing reputation of T20 cricket has left One Day Internationals in a difficult position, someplace between the vibrant shortest format and the traditional five-dayers. South Africa and England have already abridged their domestic one-day competitions to 40 overs a side, in an attempt to do away with some of the less exciting middle overs.
The International Cricket Council has been searching for ways to keep ODI cricket pertinent, and the 2011 World Cup on the subcontinent could possibly be the last one played in the current format.
Sutherland said it was a bit earlier to predict how ODI cricket would look in Australia and New Zealand by the time of the 2015 World Cup but the existing conditions under which one-day international cricket is being played nowadays might not prevail then.
Sutherland said. "There's a question there about how radically the playing conditions may have developed or changed. I honestly don't know the answer to that but what we at Cricket Australia are looking to do is to find a landing spot with a new format.”
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has said he is ready to experiment with the split-innings format of one-day cricket so as to revive its declining popularity. He said that everybody in Australia concerned with cricket, one way or other, perceived last year that with the popularity of 20-over cricket around the globe, the 50-over cricket has struggled a bit in Australia. But he added that the changes must be finalized after the support and understanding of the players.
While recognizing the need for change, Ricky Ponting, who retired from T20 cricket in 2009, was vigilant to vote his appreciation of the limited-over format and caution administration against extra tinkering.
He said that he has really enjoyed the 50-over cricket over the last couple of years. Further adding that the 20-over cricket has been quite popular all over the world, but the ODI game has not dropped off. It is the time to tweak 50-over cricket slightly to make it well again for everyone around the globe to watch.
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