The reforms that one-day and Test cricket need

When Devangshu says that the one-day international has become “a game of rich strategic content” does he mean that it requires more strategic thinking than Test cricket does, or merely that it has more moves now than it earlier did? Because if he means the former, I’d suggest that it’s truer to say that the tactical choices in an ODI have public cues -- they are more heralded and therefore more obvious. But in terms of actual strategic potential, Test cricket is the more fertile and complex form.

From how long you keep a bowler on, to when to take the new ball, or how far ahead you should be to declare, or whether you should enforce the follow-on, or whether Ashley Giles should convert the paying public to rugby by bowling over the wicket forever, or how to deal with a threatening bowler who can bowl at your batsmen without an over-limit, these are decisions that captains and players make routinely in Test matches. I agree about the wider range of skills. You have to be a better fielder for one. The downside is that a utility player who can bowl a bit is more likely to make the team in ODIs than in a Test match. Though with Sourav Ganguly being touted as a batting allrounder for the Test squad, maybe I should take that back.

I think there are two main reasons why, speaking for myself, ODIs are generally forgettable:

2. ODIs are set up to hobble bowling attacks and make batting easier. Ajay Jadeja, Michael Bevan, Andrew Symonds, giants of the one-day game, were middling to not-good-enough Test players because ODIs with limits on the number of overs a Muralitharan or McGrath can bowl and the need to save runs allow batsmen vulnerable to pace or bounce or legspin to shield their inadequacies. You seldom see a batsmen being tested as he routinely is in a Test match by a demon bowler. Bowlers in ODIs are patsies which is why most ODIs have the durability of two-reel slapstick shorts. The batsman doesn’t have a proper foil and I think you need that for real drama.

I think the two forms should become more like one another. ODI bowling rules should be relaxed to allow bowlers to bowl for longer. Fielding restrictions should be limited to four in the circle right through the match. So away with the power plays altogether. Let ODI batsmen, specially opening batsmen, earn their runs. Similarly, the one-day wide rule should be applied to Test cricket and there ought to be an overs cap on Test match first innings to make sure teams don’t play for draws. I’d like a shorter and longer version of the same game. And please, no supersub.