Concerns Remain About The Bilateral ODI Format

The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup is about nine days away from a glorious finish, but concerns remain about the sustainability of the format on a bilateral basis. The ICC’s global media rights — digital and television for 2024-2027 — have been won by Disney Star for around $ 3 billion for all signature events. The ongoing 50-over format World Cup has been far from a resounding success, save for a handful of matches in which teams competed to take the match to the wire. India’s men in blue have met with unprecedented success which will trigger a fresh wave of interest among the boys and girls across the country. Experts from England have suggested that the defending champion’s preparation was far from satisfactory after it won the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia last year. India played a maximum of 30 ODIs from October 1 last year, followed by New Zealand 25, and Sri Lanka 25. Australia played only 18 and South Africa 15. The numbers reflect dwindling interest for bilateral ODI series which India incorporates in good numbers to get a better deal from the broadcasters. The players may not be keen to get on with the 50-over format in the future as much as they would like to look at the Twenty20 franchise leagues. What will be interesting is to see what Saudi Arabia does after this World Cup.  The Arab nation has expressed interest in investing about $ 5 billion in the IPL.