Death or glory? World Cup anchors changing ODI cricket

LONDON: The World Cup which gets underway on Thursday will provide a sharp focus for One-day International cricket and a chance to show how the 50-over game has evolved since India last staged the tournament in 2011.

One of the criticisms of ODIs, once the economic driving force of the global game, is that they are too often reduced to ´meaningless´ bilateral series. The format is also viewed as too pedestrian in the slipstream of the high velocity, smash-and-grab Twenty20 format.

"The ODI has been reduced to virtually depending on a World Cup year for its importance," wrote former Australia captain Ian Chappell in a recent Cricinfo column.

Meanwhile, India great Sachin Tendulkar, a 2011 World Cup winner, believes the format is now too formulaic. "The game is becoming too predictable," he said. "From the 15th to the 40 over, it´s losing its momentum. It´s getting boring."

And yet the ODI remains a key plank of the International Cricket Council´s schedule, with the 50-over format still capable of providing an entertaining spectacle. Perhaps the biggest on-field development since 2011 has been the change in what constitutes a big total.

There have been 24 occasions on which 400 has been passed in ODI cricket and 15 of those have come since the 2011 World Cup The 2011 final saw India reach a target of 275 with just 10 balls to spare.

But in an age where World Cup-holders England have lifted the world record for an ODI total to 444 in 2016, 481 in 2018 and 498, against the Netherlands, last year, 275 rarely represents a challenging target.