Money factor behind evolution of ODI cricket

“Money alone sets the entire world in motion”, said Publilius Syrus in 100 BC. It is an evergreen quotation that applies on every era. Money is the basis of all human activities. The whole life is hinged around the money. As money is indispensible to survive
on the globe, we always try to make money from every act we do for ourselves or for others.

 Even sports are not immune of it. In the beginning, sports were considered to be only a way of gaining physical fitness and removing stress. But as the world evolved, money factor deeply immersed in the sports. The organizers of the sports started to think
about the ways of making money from the sport events. One-day cricket was also the result of such thinking.

The origins of the Cricket are traced in the Roman Empire that inherited it to England. The cricket had been playing in England since 1500. There were different forms of cricket like Glub Ball, County Cricket and then Test Cricket. Test Cricket soon became
the world event. England, the mother of cricket, started to spread the tentacles of cricket in the entire world with its colonial rule. Then there started the Ashes Test Series between England and Australia in 1883. It was the largest Test Cricket event of
the world. The ODI format of cricket is the child of Ashes.

As the Test matches had long durations, so they used to draw very few spectators. The cricket organizers thought to make money from the cricket events. For this purpose, it was necessary to introduce a limited-overs format of cricket to draw and grab the
attention interest of the people. So in 1963, some limited-overs matches were played in England. The event was named as the Gillette Cup. The matches consisted of 40 overs. Then came 55-overs matches in 1972. But the credit of introducing proper ODI matches
goes to the Ashes Test Series.

During the 1070-71 Ashes Test Series, the third match was washed out by the rain. The cricket organizers suffered a great loss due to the cancellation of the match. so that thought to compensate the loss. Sir Donald Bradman, a batsman of Australia Cricket
Team, floated an idea to play a limited-overs match that was likely to attract a large number of spectators. The idea was much appreciated and the organizing committee decided to hold a 50-overs match. The match was played between England and Australia. Australia
stood winner in the match. This experience proved to be very successful. Almost 46,000 people came to watch the match held in the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Australia earned 30,000 Australian dollars in a day. It was a huge amount in those days. So this was
the origin of the ODI.

After its median success, the ODI format gained great popularity all over the world. it was considered to be a time-saving and money-making cricket format. Due to its shorter duration, the ODI match used to attract large number of spectators. So it spread
thrill in the world of cricket. Soon the ODI matches were started to be played everywhere in the world. Then came the International Cricket Council (ICC) that started holding International Cricket World Cup on every fourth year. The World Cup matches generate
bulk money. So it was the money factor that led to the birth of the ODI.

The money factor is always there. After the success of the ODI, the cricket organizers thought to have some other limited-overs game that might attract more and more people and generate more revenue. So they introduced T20 format of cricket. It was absolutely
a stunning innovation that gave a new life to cricket. It restored the lost spirit of cricket and again filled the stadiums. The T20 matches consist of 20 overs. They are shorter than 50-overs ODIs. So they attract a lot many spectators and generate heavy
revenue.

Due to the rapidly rising popularity of T20 format, the world cricket governing bodies fear that T20 may trample the ODI format. This issue has been a central point of most of the debate on the global forums. There is going a fierce competition between these
two formats of cricket. Which will win and which will surrender? It will be clear after the ICC World Cup 2011.

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Posted by Sharjeel Ahmad on Jan 24 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry