Former India captain and batting legend Sachin Tendulkar is concerned about the health of One Day International cricket. With the bat heavily dominating the ball in the ongoing England-Australia series, Tendulkar has called for a change in playing conditions.
Will the International Cricket Council (ICC) listen to the Master Blaster?
Yesterday (June 21), England batsmen called the shots again as they chased down Australia's 310 at Chester-le-Street to zoom to a 4-0 lead in the five-match ODI rubber.
In the third ODI on June 19, the hosts set a world record by amassing 481/6 in 50 overs. The fifth and final game is on June 24 in Manchester.
Having watched another forgetful day for bowlers, Tendulkar took to the micro-blogging website Twitter in the wee hours of Friday to slam the ICC.
Tendulkar against two new balls in ODIs
Tendulkar, the highest run-getter in ODIs, called it a "perfect recipe for disaster" on the use of two new balls in the 50-over format.
According to the 45-year-old, the use of two new white balls takes reverse swing out of the game as there is not enough time for the balls to get old.
"Having 2 new balls in one day cricket is a perfect recipe for disaster as each ball is not given the time to get old enough to reverse. We haven't seen reverse swing, an integral part of the death overs, for a long time. #ENGvsAUS," Tendulkar, who has a world record of 100 international centuries, tweeted to his 26 million-plus followers.
Having 2 new balls in one day cricket is a perfect recipe for disaster as each ball is not given the time to get old enough to reverse. We haven’t seen reverse swing, an integral part of the death overs, for a long time. #ENGvsAUS
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) June 21, 2018
The post had already attracted more than 16,000 likes and retweeted over 2,000 times by 10.35 AM IST.
Waqar Younis seconds Tendulkar
Pakistan pace legend Waqar Younis, who was one of the masters of reverse swing bowling, agreed with Tendulkar.
He wrote on his Twitter page, in reply to Tendulkar's post, "Reason why we don't produce many attacking fast bowlers..They all very defensive in their approach...always looking for change ups..totally agree with you @sachin_rt reverse swing is almost vanished.. #SAD."
Reason why we don’t produce many attacking fast bowlers..They all very defensive in their approach...always looking for change ups..totally agree with you @sachin_rt reverse swing is almost vanished.. #SAD https://t.co/hPHoMXujcr
— Waqar Younis (@waqyounis99) June 21, 2018
The next year's World Cup will be held in England in June and July. If the current trend continues, we could see big scores in the ICC showpiece event. Next month, India will travel to England for limited overs and Test series.
