Cricket News: Ravi Shastri and Shahid Afridi agree on the ODI format 

The world is now slowly forgetting about the actual World Cup that used to happen after every four years.

Cricket world experts and players are divided into their perspectives of ODI. For some, it's a dying form, and for some, a small reformation can bring the format back to life, but everyone believes this 50-overs cricket match needs some reformation.

Time for scrapping another ten overs from ODI?

So, where does ODI stand? Is it dull, is it too long to be fun as T20I, or too short and less observing to be as seriously fascinating as Tests? Answering this, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan in a conversation with Business Standard, said, "One Day cricket needs revamp. It shouldn't be scrapped at all as it is financially very important for the broadcasters as you have 100 overs of ad sponsorship, which neither T20Is nor Tests provide in a single day." He added, "I believe it should be made 40 covers each side, which will allow the boring parts of the 50 overs format (Overs 25-40) to be done away with."

Shahid Afridi also suggested, "One day cricket is becoming very boring now. I suggest that one-day cricket should be changed to 40-40 overs instead of 50-50 overs."

Ravi Shastri supported Shahid Afridi's view by beautifully explaining the reason. "There is no harm in shortening the span of the game. When one-day cricket started, it was 60 overs. When we won the World Cup in 1983, it was 60 overs. After that, people thought that 60 overs were a bit too long. People found that the span of overs is between 20 to 40 and hard to digest. So they reduced it from 60 to 50. So years have gone by now since that decision, so why not reduce it from 50 to 40 now. Because you got to be forward-thinking and evolve. It stayed for 50 for too long,"

This 40-over Idea has already been in play in the English domestic circuit, where Pro-40 matches are played for the Royal London One Day Cup, their premier domestic tournament. Even Sachin Tendulkar suggested that ODIs could be made a four-innings game with 25 overs, giving it a touch of red-ball format.

In a batters-dominated game, ODI needs bowler-centric rules

Apart from the number of overs reformation, a few updates like making the bowler the hero of this format might bring back the attention that this format needs. Cricket history has numerous pacers with 400+ ODI wickets. The pitches now everywhere are either made for T20s or Tests. For ODI, these pitches are, for a significant part, flat only, making it a batting-friendly condition. ICC first must try regulating this part to bring back equal competition between bowlers and batters.

The primary reason why today's retired legends were able to take so many wickets was the reverse swing, which is dead now in ODI after bringing in two new balls. One new ball per inning is a necessity for the ODI format. When the ball starts reverse swinging, the real battler will come up, and it'll be a treat to watch for the world.

ICC already has plans, with the ODI World Cup coming in 2023. The ODI format will surely not die, but it demands reformation to keep it lively and engaging. Just like T20 is a battle of firepower, and a test match is a battle of patience, ODI must also find its position and what it stands for. ODI needs to be re-discovered.