Other website sections

»Sports Market Reports

»Sports Jobs

»Tenders

»Directory

»Conferences

A growing disenchantment over the length of one-day internationals could result in a reduction to 40 overs-a-side fixtures, including World Cups.

The issue, which has come to a head as a result of research into how cricket followers want to spend their leisure time, has been discussed at meetings of the ECB with Cricket Australia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the three most powerful national bodies in the game.

The ICC is committed to staging a 50 overs-a-side World Cup in 2011, but deliberation is being given to whether this format should be changed to a 40-overs tournament from 2015. “There are too many global events and they need defining,” Giles Clarke, the chairman of the ECB, said. “It is really important that the 2011 World Cup succeeds. One does need to look at what spectators think and want. In England, they want Test cricket, Twenty20 and 40-overs matches.”

“People are time-poor and we must realise that Twenty20 has succeeded partly because of its duration of two hours, 45 minutes — the length of a longer movie. Football matches do not start in the early morning. Why was the last World Cup [a 50-overs tournament] not a success? Our matches against Australia this summer are sold out, but why are people generally not watching 50-overs cricket? They want to mow the lawn and go to church or to the mosque in the morning before going to the cricket.

“Our absolute responsibility is to ensure people go to watch cricket and every piece of research is about leisure time. Everyone enjoyed themselves at the Brit Oval last week because there was tension in the match. The middle period of 50-overs matches do not have tension about them and we have to consider shorter formats.”

The ECB, which has been encouraged by the size of the crowds in the NatWest Pro40 this summer, is to bring in another 40 or 50 overs competition next year, a revival of the old Sunday League, as the first-class counties see it. “There are a lot of forward-thinking administrators around the world and there is a general understanding we must look at what the crowds want,” Clarke said. “The Times of India carried a poll stating 65 per cent of people said 50-overs cricket was too long and boring, which was concerning.”

It has been mooted within the ECB’s cricket committee that any alteration to the existing rules and regulations of 50 overs-a-side matches, be this two innings a side, powerplays or the Duckworth/Lewis format, could be given a trial at second XI level next season before any 40-overs internationals take place.

A further issue to be resolved is the colour of the ball, yellow having been ruled out. Research on pink balls is continuing at Imperial College London. There has been no indication from the ECB’s reviews that spectators desire a Fifteen15 or Ten10 competition.

The future of Test cricket — “a major concern to us because we want to sell out our matches against Pakistan next year as well as for the Ashes this summer,” he added — has also been discussed by the boards. Clarke recognises that the prime effect of Twenty20 on Test cricket is that batsmen score more quickly and hence the cricket becomes more exciting. As it does, he added, if played on pitches that are not “featherbeds”, such as at the Oval for the fifth npower Ashes Test last week.

In 2005, the previous occasion England won the Ashes, cricket was described as “the new football”. Clarke said this week that he did not want to compare it to any other sport. “I am pretty optimistic,” he said. “Cricket has made a massive advance in investment at all levels since 2005. Up to 12.5 million people are involved in the game, an encouraging number of Asians are coming through and the Chance to shine programme is slowly reversing years of nothing.”

(Source: Timesonline.co.uk)