LONDON: Former Pakistan captain and legendary cricketer Wasim Akram has suggested that cricket administrators should consider scrapping 50-over matches from the International calendar and hailed England Test skipper Ben Stokes for his decision to retire from ODI cricket.
Speaking on The Telegraph’s Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club podcast, Akram stated that while Test cricket was still his favourite form of the game, it was now time to think about a major overhaul of the longer white-ball format.
“I think so. In England, you have full houses. In India, Pakistan especially, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, one-day cricket you are not going to fill the stadiums.” Akram said when asked by the hosts if cricket administrators should think about scrapping ODI cricket.
“They are doing it just for the sake of doing it. After the first 10 overs, it’s just ‘OK, just go a run a ball, get a boundary, four fielders in and you get to 200, 220 in 40 overs’ and then have a go last 10 overs. Another 100. It’s kind of run-of-the-mill.” he added.
While commending Stokes’ decision to call time on his ODI career, the legendary cricketer believed that the One-day format was dying in modern-day cricket as it was inconvenient for the players to play 50 overs-a-side games in the age of T20 cricket.
“Him deciding that he is retiring from one-day cricket is quite sad but I agree with him,” he said. “Even as a commentator … one-day cricket is just a drag now, especially after T20.”
“T20 is kind of easier, four hours the game is over. The leagues all around the world, there is a lot more money – I suppose this is part and parcel of modern cricket. T20 or Test cricket. One-day cricket is kind of dying.” he concluded.
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