How good will the split innings format of ODIs be?

With the 2011 ICC World Cup round the corner, a new rule is under the scanner of World Cricket – some in favour and others not. Though, it seems like an interesting ploy to make One Day cricket more interesting and dynamic. With Twenty-twenty cricket being a prime attraction today, one day cricket had to change to draw more attention.

This new concept however was once proposed by Sachin Tendulkar in September 2009 after the rain-hit Champion’s Trophy 2002 Finals between India and Sri Lanka, where both the teams played for two days – 110 over, yet ending up with a draw.

The rules of this new version are as exciting as it sounds. There would be four innings, each of them to be played alternately by both the teams.  The first innings played by both the team would be of twenty overs, while the second one would be of twenty five. It seems to be like a test match, however limited. The most interesting aspect of this version would be – one player gets to bat twice in a single match. This gives a clear idea that the matches would be very high scoring and any team can make a come-back and win.
To make it clearer, below are the basic rules being drawn out:

• Fielding restrictions would be only for the first five over of all four innings.
• There is a big change in terms of the maximum number of overs allowed to one bowler. They are now allowed to bowl twelve overs instead of ten.
• The bowlers seem to be getting a lot of advantages here. They would be allowed to bowl two bouncers here instead of one. So, we can expect a lot of fireworks around.
• The team who leads the first innings would be awarded a point even though they end up losing the match.The One Day Internationals would be having twelve players instead of the conventional eleven. However, only eleven players out of them can bat in any given innings.

International Cricket Council however, is yet to decide on the implementation of the new rules of the road. They are in talks to multiple Cricketing Nations in order to have a feedback whether this style would help One Day Internationals restore their past glory. With the number of Twenty-twenty matches being played these days, and the number of spectators liking them, ODIs have been under a massive threat.

Today, people love to watch something which would give a result and a quicker result. In fact, there would be a higher chance of getting a result in this new style, even if half the match has been played. The intensity would be higher since the players would get two lives in a single match, which would lead them to take more risk and play more aggressively. Apart from that, captains would have a massive role to play in terms of strategizing on the field.

Looks like, cricket is moving in the right direction, provided ICC realizes that a revolution is required at the earliest – what better than implementing it during the upcoming World Cup!