Another new format and bringing fans back to the game in South Africa

It wasn’t long ago that there was talk the One Day International cricket in it’s current format is dead and buried. There was a public out cry with conflicting opinions. The old school called for the 50 over format to stay, while the younger crowd were punting the success of T20 cricket.

Cricket administrators have been fiddling with the format of 50 over cricket at the domestic level, the domestic series in South Africa has gone from 50, to 45 and is now at 40 overs in the MTN40. They’ve also introduced all sorts of power plays which is just too boring to explain.

It’s now been reported that the Australian cricket administrators are considering implementing a domestic series of 40-over matches, with each team to bat for two innings of 20 overs. But wait don’t jump to conclusions yet, there’s more. In this ‘new’ format, wickets lost and runs scored would accumulate over the full 40 overs, as I understand it; if a batsman get’s  out in the first innings, then he can’t bat in the second innings.

Crazy if you ask me, and this just as the issue of 50 over ODI cricket had started to settle down.

I’ve previously written about the failings of the MTN40, but over time I’ve started to change my opinion on the various formats of cricket. The success of a format, series or tournament is directly related to the quality of the players competing. It’s simple, cricket fans want to watch the best batsmen and best bowlers. It doesn’t really matter if they playing 50 or 40 overs. The reason the IPL is such as success isn’t because it’s T20 cricket, it’s because the worlds best players come together to compete.

If domestic cricket in South Africa wants to attract more spectators to the cricket grounds then they need to attract international players to the domestic competitions. The IPL, the county championship and England’s domestic T20 (Friends Provident T20) all attract international players.

The MTN40 and the Standard Bank Pro20 need to attract international players – this will bring the crowds back to the cricket grounds. Look at IPL 2 held in South Africa, every single game was well attended.

This brings me to the concept that Shane Warne and the Rajasthan Roylas have introduced, an international brand for a team that competes is domestic competitions, with a pool of players from all over the world…. Doesn’t sound like such a bad idea after all.