Fewer bilateral series in future but hard to think cricket without ODIs: Rhodes
Former South Africa cricketer Jonty Rhodes has said there could be fewer bilateral ODI series in the future, but said it is difficult to imagine cricket without the 50-over format. Rhodes believes fans will continue to turn up to support their teams regardless of the format, while acknowledging that the 50-over game could face challenges in the years ahead.
“When T20 cricket first started, people were saying it is going to put pressure on Test cricket and amazingly it has not. Some of the Test cricket looks like T20 at times, there is some aggressive batting and bowling,” Rhodes told the media during the jersey launch of European T20 Premier League (ETPL) team Rotterdam Dockers here on Tuesday. Rotterdam Dockers, co-owned by Rhodes, will feature in the inaugural edition of the ETPL, to be held in Voorburg, the Netherlands, and Dublin from August 26 to September 20. “For me, it is always understanding that 50-overs cricket might be the one format where -- because we bring in such a fresh crowd and a different perspective into the game -- possibly 50-overs cricket might be in trouble in the years ahead.
“From a point of view, we’re really fortunate that what 50-overs cricket has is that you’ve got really passionate fans who will support their team no matter what format or version it is,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes continued, “At this stage, I think there will be fewer and fewer bilateral series... but it is very difficult to think of cricket without the 50-over version.”
Rhodes said the growing number of T20 leagues around the world could prompt players to retire from international cricket earlier.
“We’ve seen a FIFA World Cup football and the passion that people have for playing for their country, it’s often the case because they don’t get to play that often. So outside of a FIFA World Cup year, most of those international stars are playing for their clubs and their franchises and you might see more and more of that happening on a cricketing perspective,” he said. “To have three different formats within cricket competing with franchise cricket around the world, players will start making a choice and that choice will be ending their international career slightly earlier,” Rhodes added.
Rhodes expressed confidence that South Africa can go the distance at next year’s ODI World Cup, which the country will co-host with Zimbabwe and Namibia.
“We as South Africans are looking forward to hosting it. It’s been a while and it’s great that it’s come around again. Good timing for us, the team is playing pretty well,” he said. “There’s a few things that we would like to settle and one of those is obviously winning an ICC limited-overs trophy,” Rhodes added.
Rhodes said fielding has evolved significantly since his playing days, with players themselves taking greater initiative to raise standards.
“It actually came from the players themselves and that for me is a real revelation to see how the players practice these days. We see some great things happening on the field and the reason is because they put the hours into practice doing exactly that,” he said.
“The positional play, and what we saw 10 years ago, you could have three or four good fielders and you could hide four or five players. These days, you can’t even hide one.
“(In the Indian team) Virat Kohli insisted that you had to be fit and you had to be a good fielder and fairly robust in the field and athletic, and the fitness levels were important. We’ve seen the evolution in India of a team that had one or two great fielders to now a team that there’s nobody to hide,” he added.
