‘Who has seven hours free?’ – Ajay Jadeja weighs in on the importance of ODIs. To keep the format interesting, Ravi Shastri and Shahid Afridi recently proposed reducing the number of overs in ODIs.
Former Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja responded to discussions about the future of the ODI format. Explaining the impact of broadcasters and media rights on the format’s popularity. Notably, Ben Stokes recently retired from ODI cricket at the age of 31. Preferring to focus on Test and T20I formats, which has raised a lot of questions about the 50-over format.
In fact, Test cricket has survived and looks promising in the modern era. However, the introduction of the T20 format has put ODIs on the back foot, and cricketers have struggled to manage the workload in three formats. Former cricketers Ravi Shastri and Shahid Afridi recently proposed reducing ODIs from 50 to 40 overs to keep the format interesting.
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Whichever receives more media rights is more popular: Ajay Jadeja on Importance of ODIs:
Jadeja compared the introduction of ODI cricket to the previous era when the number of Tests was quite low and explained that broadcasters found the 50-over format quite lucrative. He went on to emphasize the significance of media rights in influencing the format’s popularity.
“There was a time when ODI cricket was introduced and fewer Test matches were played because it was more productive for the players, broadcasters, and the association.” Broadcasters play an important role. If you’ve noticed, whoever has the most media rights is the most popular. ODI was once prohibitively expensive. Then came T20,” Jadeja explained to Fan Code during the second ODI between India and the West Indies.
He believes that since the introduction of T20Is, media rights have increased, but that Test cricket will not suffer as a result. He concluded with a witty remark about who would spare seven hours for a match when T20 is over in three.
“Now their rights have increased and hence ODIs are being played less. But Test will forever remain. In fact, India are playing more Test match now than they played 20-30 years back. But ODI… 7 ghante kiske paas he agar saare teen ghante me kaam chalta he?”.
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