Ravi Shastri Comes Out In Support Of Shahid Afridi: Not long ago, the cricket fraternity was worried about the possible extinction of Test cricket amid rise in the T20 leagues across the world but now the tables have turned. Everyone, from cricketers to experts, is worried about ODI cricket as they feel that the future of this format is under the threat.
The conversation regarding the future of the ODI format started after England all-rounder Ben Stokes, 31, and the 2019 ODI World Cup winner, announced his retirement from the ODI format last week. Ben Stokes had announced his retirement from the ODI format in order to focus on the other two formats due to heavily packed international scheduling.
Ever since then several cricketers and experts have come out with opinions about making this format more interesting. Several cricketers feel that the ODI format has become the most inefficient and time-consuming format of cricket.
Ravi Shastri Backed Shahid Afridi’s Opinion
Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri recently came up with an interesting take on how ODI cricket can still be made interesting as he backed the opinion of former Pakistan player Shahid Afridi.
Well, while doing commentary during the second ODI match between West Indies and India, Ravi Shastri opined that there is no harm in making the format interesting by trimming a few overs. He had said:
“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,”
ODI has become quite boring – Shahid Afridi
It was just a few days ago when former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi said some similar words as Ravi Shastri. Following Ben Stokes’ retirement from the ODI format, Afridi had spoken on the same lines during his interview with Samaa TV. He had said:
“One-day cricket has become quite boring now. I would suggest to cut ODI cricket from 50 overs to 40 overs in order to make it entertaining,”
