sport news Australian cricket players want ODIs reduced to 40 overs to compete with T20 ... trends now
Can one-day cricket be saved and should we even try - it is a question that Australian cricket players have weighed in on as T20 comes to dominate the sport's calendar.
With the T20 World Cup to commence in Australia on October 16, all the attention and hype surrounds the shorter form of white ball cricket at the moment.
The 'traditional' 50-over game that once packed stadiums and had huge TV audiences has been cast into the shadows by T20.
However, Australia's former one day and T20 skipper Aaron Finch says there is plenty of life in the format yet.
'The same debate keeps coming up every couple of years when you're 12 months out from a World Cup,' he told ABC.
'People try and find relevance in it, but the World Cup rolls around and it'll be bigger than Ben-Hur again and then another format will be on the chopping block.'
Others believe the game should be trimmed back to 40 overs a side, with reduced leisure time and diminishing attention spans in the online era meaning less is more from a marketing perspective.
Australian captain Aaron Finch (L) leads the team out with Chloe Symonds (C), daughter of the late Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds
The reduction in overs would also remove the common mid-innings lull when both the batting and fielding teams play conservatively in preparation for the more frantic closing overs.
Australia batsman Usman Khawaja said '50 overs is just that little bit too long now'.
'I would like one-day cricket more if it was 40 overs. I really would,' Usman Khawaja said.
'I played Pro40s in England a few years ago when they were playing 40 over cricket. I loved it.
'T20 cricket's awesome, Test cricket is the pinnacle, I just feel like one day cricket, if it could be 40 overs I reckon that would just take out the middle bit and it would just be [perfect].
'You get to 25 overs and you look up and you're like oh crap, there's only 15 overs left, alright let's go again.
'So you don't have that little lull. That's my only objection to one day cricket.'
Khawaja said reducing ODI cricket to 40 overs would get rid of the 'lull' period in the middle
Zampa has been a prolific wicket taker in ODI cricket but wants to see the overs reduced
Spinner Adam Zampa
