World Cup 2023: Thrills, shockers cannot erase future ODI concerns

The ODI World Cup ended on Sunday with Australia doing what they do. India were on the other end of the result. The stadium had over 92,000 people and over five-crore had tuned in on digital streaming at one point. To say the country wasn’t hooked would be an understatement. The six-week tournament witnessed some gripping matches, but maybe not enough. Afghanistan captivated everyone’s imagination despite their meagre means. New Zealand and South Africa played some incredible cricket to get to the semi-finals. Records were set for stadium attendance and digital broadcast viewership. Yet, one can’t help but feel – where now for ODI cricket?

The tournament started with question marks over its future and it persisted with dull contests for the most part of the 10-team tournament. The format didn’t quite help matters either. One could argue that the current format is rigged to favour the big teams. Even if the smaller teams pull off a couple of surprise wins, as Afghanistan did, there is stiff chance of them going forward. The 48 matches are divided into 45 league matches and just three knockout matches. If the objective is to draw continued eyeballs, the aim should be to have plenty of matches with something riding on them. Surely it is a concept ICC is aware of when they introduced the World Test Championship cycle with a final at the end of it.

Netherlands beat South Africa and it didn’t cause quite a stir. Australia lost two matches at the start of the tournament, New Zealand went down in four straight games and yet went through. All that changed, in the end, was the order of their progression towards the semi-finals.

By comparison, FIFA World Cup last year in Qatar had three group stage matches followed by knockouts. One could argue against that format too and football is guilty of overdoing it with number of teams. But if there was an Argentina recovering from a Saudi Arabia defeat to end their trophy drought. There was the also the monumental high of Morocco and Japan outperforming the likes of Belgium and Germany.

Afghanistan are quickly becoming the pathbreakers of #CWC23