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Why we should be okay with ODI cricket being treated as a “junk format”
Lachlan Geleit, SEN • November 12th, 2024 12:41 pm
ODI cricket in Australia is being treated as a junk format according to respected cricket journalist Peter Lalor, and fans should be okay with that.
Proof that the format is suffering was clear to see in Australia’s 1-2 series loss to Pakistan with a raft of big names including Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc among others either missing the series entirely or only being partly available.
Many of those omissions were down to preparation for the upcoming five-Test series against India, and Lalor is fine with the red-ball format being prioritised over all others by Cricket Australia.
Lalor also pointed to a lack of a marketing push behind the series from Cricket Australia, which SEN’s Gerard Whateley believes may have been deliberate given the governing body would have known that many of the big names wouldn’t be playing.
“One Day cricket has really suffered and is really suffering,” Lalor told SEN Whateley.
“But if any form you know if any form of the game has to suffer, it has to be the white-ball game.
“The bottom line on this is that if the guiding principle is that Test match cricket matters more than anything else, I’m really comfortable with that.
“Let's not forget, Cameron Green isn't playing this series because he played a One Day series and was injured. I’m not saying that he shouldn't have played those games, he should have, but the first line of debate was, ‘What’s he doing playing a stupid One Day series anyway?’.
“I think we're all invested at that level … there has been no marketing of this One Day series.”
Whateley added: “I suspect now that that was deliberate.
“Last Monday, I was naively asking, 'Why?'. 25,000 without any effort in Melbourne, 21,000 in Adelaide, 19,000 in Perth - in hindsight these are actually great crowds for the fact that it wasn't being pushed, and I suspect this is why it wasn't being pushed.
“The administration lined these games up and the team said, that’s not going to fly, we're not taking everyone to Perth, then sending them home, then taking them all back to Perth.”
With white-ball cricket only being a priority before or during World Cups, Lalor supported the decision of Australian selectors to give opportunities to some inexperienced names like Jake Fraser-McGurk and Cooper Connolly who could push for selection at the next ODI World Cup in 2027.
“It's a junk format at the moment unless the World Cup is on,” Labor said.
“One Day cricket and T20 cricket is a junk format.
“I like the idea of replenishing the team if you're looking at World Cup cycles, of putting these younger players in.
“There were only three members of the World Cup side winning side that played in that last match.
“Let’s not forget, this is a five-Test series against India, I want them to do everything to get Pat Cummins through those five Tests.”
With the ODI series now complete, Australia’s attention turns to a three-game T20I series against Pakistan beginning on Thursday in Brisbane.
The first of the five-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy series begins in Perth on November 22.
