Former Indian World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev feels that the ICC should look into the declining stature of the ODI format. The retirement of Ben Stokes from ODI cricket to focus more on T20Is and Tests has created a lot of concern among the experts over the international scheduling.
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The boards have been preferring a lot of bilateral T20I series and Tests, while the number of ODIs has come down considerably. Recently, Trent Boult requested New Zealand Cricket (NZC) to release him from the central contract as he wanted to spend more time with his family and participate in other global T20 leagues.
Boult and Stokes are two of the best match-winners in the modern-day generation and it is a huge loss for the fans.
Kapil mentioned that the ICC has to take care of the management factor. He was worried if the game might take a different route than football did where the countries haven't been playing frequently against each other. He added that the ICC has to ensure that the ODI and Test formats survive and felt that the increase in the number of leagues might largely hamper the international scheduling.
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"It's going the way as football in Europe": Kapil Dev
"I think it's fading out. The ICC (International Cricket Council) has a bigger responsibility how to manage this game. It's going the way as football in Europe. They don't play against each country. It is once in four years (during the World Cup). Is this what we're going to have, the World Cup and the rest of the time playing club (T20 franchise) cricket?."
Dev was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald
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"In a similar way, will cricketers eventually be playing mainly the IPL or the Big Bash or something like that? So the ICC have to put more time into that to see how they can ensure the survival of one-day cricket, Test match cricket, not only club cricket. Club cricket is OK for a while. The Big Bash is OK. But the South African league is coming, the UAE league is coming. If all the countries are going to play the club cricket, then international cricket will be only for the World Cup," he added.