Former India captain Kapil Dev feels that the International Cricket Council (ICC) needs to put more time into ensuring the survival of One-day as well as Test match cricket.
The growth of franchise T20 leagues has raised a serious question marks over the future of ODI cricket, and concerns for its future down the line, including Test cricket. The ODI retirement of England Test captain Ben Stokes due to a jam-packed unsustainable schedule has raised even further doubts about the future of 50-over game.
“I think it’s fading out. The ICC (International Cricket Council) has a bigger responsibility how to manage this game. It’s going the way as football in Europe. They don’t play against each country. It is once in four years (during the World Cup). Is this what we’re going to have, the World Cup and the rest of the time playing club (T20 franchise) cricket?”
“In a similar way, will cricketers eventually be playing mainly the IPL or the Big Bash or something like that? So the ICC have to put more time into that to see how they can ensure the survival of one-day cricket, Test match cricket, not only club cricket,” Dev was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Club cricket is OK for a while. The Big Bash is OK. But the South African league is coming, the UAE league is coming. If all the countries are going to play the club cricket, then international cricket will be only for the World Cup.”
