Ben Stokes’s retirement from ODIs is beginning to have an impact. It is now just a tickle but with the right kind of push, it can become a deluge. As things stand, more and more top quality players may be forced to choose between the different formats and leave the game prematurely. Ben Stokes took a courageous decision. One that will be good for him and his family. If more top players follow suit, it will just make the authorities think. Though, I do not think that anything will change in the near future, atleast if the administrators start to worry about their finances, it may produce a snowball effect. Stokes’s retirement starts to have repercussions.
After announcing his retirement, Stokes was even more vehement in thrashing the administrators. He was quite frank and open about what he thinks about how the players are being treated.
“We are not cars where you can fill us up with petrol and let us go. It has an effect on you, the playing, the travel, it does add up.”
This is a damning indictment on the powers. I only have admiration for the way Stokes has come about and spoken his mind. This needs to be said and even better for a top player to say so. The current volume of cricket is simply unsustainable, both from the players perspective and even from the spectators perspective.
Buttler, Stokes’s captain in ODIs, concurs
Buttler said: “It should definitely be a bit of a wake-up call, absolutely. Especially the magnitude of the player – one of the most recognisable players in world cricket, someone everyone wants to see play in every format.
Wasim Akram wants ODIs scrapped
First to air his views was the former Pakistan captain, Wasim Akram. We all know what a wonderful bowler Akram was. He is among the thought provoking former players still around. He has called for ODIs to be scraped permanently.
“I think so (ODIs should scrapped). 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. 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,” added Akram.
He was talking in the Vaughany & Tuffers Cricket Podcast. He is correct in his assessment that ODI have become monotonous. You pretty much know how the game will progress. How long will ODI be sustained is anybody’s guess but I do not think that ODI will be scrapped. ICC will never be in a hurry to do so. For all of the faults in ODIs, it still is a money spinner.
Test Cricket is the format that is actually not making any money for the respective boards. It still moves along because a lot of the top players still prefer Test Cricket and they value the runs and wickets scored in Tests when compared to the white ball variety.
Broadcasters unlikely to acquiescence
ODI on the otherhand, runs for more than 7 hours a day. For the broadcasters, it fills time on their schedule and at the sametime, with frequent adverts, the money that an ODI generates is enormous. It will be higher compared to T20 too because of the shorter duration. This is one income ICC will be loath to surrender. Having said that, more and more players will be forced to give up ODI because that currently is the least favourite among the three. What can be done is to regulate these ODI games.
Now, you have teams travelling to far off countries just to play a series of meaningless games. It must be combined with Test Cricket and if for some reason, ODIs was unsustainable in that tour, they must be scrapped without the need to reschedule just the ODIs. The broadcasters will have to be onboard but I imagine that that is easier said than done.
Ramprakash hit the nail on the head
Mark Ramprakash, the former England batsman was equally vehement in his criticism of ODI cricket.
“Too many games have been played on shirtfronts with balls that don’t swing, seam or spin, massively weighted in favour of the batter. When the balance between bat and ball is lost the result is poor cricket.
This is exactly what Ashwin had expressed a few days ago. Two new balls completely killed swing and spin.
Will all of these makes the ICC and the various boards to think and change themselves? That is a million-dollar question. They have the golden goose but will not happy until it is killed. What may persuade the administrators?
More players must leave one format
If we go backwards a few months, the entire cricketing community were shocked to learn that Quinton de Kock has retired from Test Cricket. Here is a cricketer and a brilliant batsman who decided to give up the best form of cricket at an age when most players will be at their peak. After the exit of all those great cricketers from South Africa, it is de Kock who is the best cricketer among the current lot. For such a player to walk away from the highest form of the game must have awakened the authorities but it didn’t.
The unfortunate thing is that Stokes has retired more than 8 months after de Kock announced his retirement. By now, everyone would have forgotten about de Kock already and Stokes’s retirement is considered as an isolated incident.
The ICC and the various boards will begin to worry once more and more top players leave one form of the game and that too, in rapid succession. Smith and Cummins from Australia, Root, Bairstow from England, Babar, Rizwan, Williamson, Boult are the best cricketers in their respective teams. If they announce that they will relinquish one format, it will have the desired effect.
Above all, it is the Indian players who hold the trump card. They will have to come forward. Kohli and Rohit may not have the desired impact because they are aged and are expected to give up one form of the game soon but if a Pant or Bumrah retire, that is when the authorities will wake up from their deep slumber. However, will the Indian players be courageous enough?
Wrapping up Stokes’s retirement starts to have repercussions
Unless and until the Indian players follow the bandwagon, things will not change.