As many rush to pronounce the death of one-day international (ODI) cricket, Bangladesh interim coach Shane Jurgensen wants pundits to ponder the plight of the world’s developing cricket nations.
The surging popularity of international and franchise-based Twenty20 cricket has prompted a handful of former players, most recently and notably Adam Gilchrist, to question what future the 50-over game has.
Gilchrist said earlier this month that one-day cricket might be obsolete in about three years, given the ODI overload, its declining crowds and the T20 boom.
However, the format could not be more important for sides like Ireland who are yet to gain admission to the International Cricket Council’s elite Test-playing group. And while ODIs might not be the pinnacle for Bangladesh, who played two Tests in 2012, they are the only opportunity for Jurgensen’s charges to play multiple matches against top-quality opposition.
“For the teams that aren’t given the chance to play lots of Test matches over the next few years, it’s absolutely vital they play a lot of one-day cricket,” Jurgensen told AAP.
“T20 cricket is fun – it has a very good dollar value … so I think it’s certainly important that it’s played.
“But one-day cricket is sort of, not quite a mini-Test match, but because of the two new white balls, it’s now a real different type of game compared to what it used to be.
“Now you don’t see too many teams that are 100 after 10 overs any more. It tends to be 40 to 50 runs off those first 10 overs. It’s given the bowlers an opportunity to really be on the hunt for early wickets.”
Jurgensen also suggested series of a minimum five matches would ensure ODIs don’t become meaningless.
“Because it just gives both teams an opportunity to really show who the best is,” the Australian said.
“I really enjoyed our recent (five-match) series against the West Indies.
“We won the first two games … then the West Indies came back and won the next two because they’re such a good team.
“Then the final game was high quality, and we had fantastic crowds for all those games.”