Three cheers for the ODI

Ramachandra Guha, writing in the Telegraph, says that early matches in the World Cup – especially the tied India-England match – have demonstrated the ability of ODIs to provide attractive and meaningful cricket, and on the evidence of the tournament’s first fortnight, it may redeem the promise of the 50-over game.

Test cricket is real cricket, not because it is played over five days, but because it places bat and ball on par. Twenty20 is a vulgar and debased form of the game, because the bowler gets a mere four overs. Although 50-50 cricket is still biased in favour of the batsman, at least he can go beyond mere slogging to construct and shape an innings, the way Tendulkar and Strauss did in Bangalore that day. Meanwhile, given 60 rather than 24 deliveries, the bowler can still somewhat display his variety and subtlety, as both Bresnan and Zaheer showed us at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.