Australian plan has Tendulkar's backing
Cricket Australia's decision to experiment with the split-innings one-day format next summer, with four innings of 20-25 overs each per match, is one that will have the support of Sachin Tendulkar, who had proposed such an idea last year
Siddhartha Talya
25-Feb-2013
Cricket Australia's decision to experiment with the split-innings one-day format next summer, with four innings of 20-25 overs each per match, is one that will have the support of Sachin Tendulkar, who had proposed such an idea last year. Sharda Ugra, in backpagelead.com.au, says the experiment will add some nuance to the 50-over version, which has looked unappetizing with the advent of Twenty20 cricket.
The plan may get more Aussies back into grounds and will also introduce some nuance back into the 50-over format. The original plan wants to reduce the longer version of the short game to 40 overs-a-side. The only difference that 10 overs a side will make is to reduce the length of a match by about 90 minutes. If folk begin to return to grounds for the four-innings 40-over game, they may surely stick on for the old Fifty50.
Since the advent of T20, though, the ODI particularly has looked distinctly unappetizing stuck as it is somewhere between slow cooking and fast food.
The gluttony of flat-wicket-short-boundary syndrome, most common in these parts, has often produced less match, more monotony. So any possible injection of suspense is to be welcomed like the discovery of an unreleased Hitchcock thriller.
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo