Sachin Tendulkar, a World Cup-winning Indian cricketer and one of the greatest batters in history, is highly regarded as one of the most exceptional players to ever grace the sport. His impressive record is a testament to his skill. Despite having an outstanding ODI cricket record, Tendulkar recently shared his perspective on the 50-over format.
According to Tendulkar, the use of two new balls and contemporary fielding restrictions is making the game dull and highly anticipated. He also mentioned that the new regulations are making the format too challenging for the bowlers.
Sachin Tendulkar on ODI cricket
“It’s getting monotonous without any doubt. There are two parts. One is the current format, and the next is how I feel it should be played. Let me talk about the current format which has been there for a while now. When you have two new balls, it eliminates the reverse swing. Even though we are in the 40th over of the game, it’s actually the 20th over of that ball,” Tendulkar said.
In addition to discussing the challenges that the ODI format poses for bowlers, Tendulkar also addressed how the format and contemporary rules are impacting the game. He suggested a potential solution to make the ODI format more exciting by dividing the game into shorter innings to level the playing field for both teams, which can be affected by the dew factor.
“Coming to the second bit, we should be playing 25 overs first. Divide it into 4 halves, like in Test cricket. In Tests, you have 20 wickets here you only have 10 wickets. If you are dismissed, you are out of the game for the next 25 overs as well. You can’t come back and bat. Why I am saying this because we played a tournament in Sri Lanka where we played 118 overs without any result. On the first day, Sri Lanka batted first and we played 10 overs, the match was rained out. The match was again called off on the following day. We almost played 118 overs without any result,” he added.
In addition, Tendulkar himself was a talented spinner and delivered some remarkable performances for India over the years. He spoke in support of spinners and how they are being negatively impacted by the current ODI cricket format.
“Also for spinners, I have spoken to a few spinners. I was trying to understand their mindset with 5 fielders in the ring. The bowlers are saying that we don’t have the freedom to change our lines. Even if we know that, there is a possibility of batter making the mistake, if we change our line then we might have to pay a heavy price. They don’t have the protection now in the current format,” he said.
