"A true test or a needless compromise" Is 50 over cricket on the way out?

Tongue-in cheek it may have been, but Graham Swann’s call for the phasing out of 50 over cricket is a view shared by much of the English cricket fraternity.

Swann has lost his status as the world’s premier ranked one day bowler, and as the 50 over game is the one format in which England currently struggle, there appears a light-hearted mischief to the spinner’s words.

He touches however upon deeper sentiments and in a calendar already stretched to breaking point, player, public and corporate interests could eventually combine to confirm his prophecy.

Twenty20 is the future of the game, the way to transcend cricket to the masses, and to the short-attention spans of the modern world.

When it was introduced there were fears that it would be too basic, too batsmen-friendly and to the detriment of the games technique. Yet many of the same worries were uttered at the introduction of one-day cricket, and like in the 1970s, players such as Swann and Lasith “the slinger” Malinga have spear-headed the adaption to the different demands of the shorter format.

Shane Warne this week defended the Twenty20 concept, and the fact that on any given day anyone can almost beat anyone, as one of its most endearing and unique qualities.

If Twenty20 is the rock concert, then Test Matches are the classical opera: a game for the purists. In the last month alone a series of enthralling encounters has confirmed the value of a format never seriously in doubt.

In South Africa we saw the Aussies skittled out for 47 but subsequently recover in Joburg for a pulsating final day victory. Then in Mumbai the West Indies hung on for histories second ever draw with the scores level, after five roller-coaster days of action. England’s schedule next year, in the sub-continent and against the South Africans, wets the appetite already.

So how does the 50 over game fit into this? The World Cup proved that great matches can occur. The game ebbs and flows like no other, and requires the right balance between building an innings and keeping the scoreboard moving.

Yet it does seem a compromise of sorts for the other two versions and when the World Test Championships belatedly begins the World Cup’s status will be downgraded.

Money and Sponsorship must also be considered. But whatever the corporate demands English summer has no space for 7 Tests, Twenty20 and numerous ODI’s. Player power will eventually win through and ODI’s are the obvious sacrifice even to the corporate mind.  

It would be sad to see it go. It was the 50 over game which made cemented India, Sri Lanka (and others) as cricketing superpowers and who could forget great matches like the Australia v South Africa World Cup semi of 1999.

As Swann stated it won’t be happening for a while, but change is always a necessary in life and in sport and common sense, business, player and public desire all suggests that the game may slowly be approaching extinction.