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Sachin Tendulkar is arguably the biggest name in Indian cricket even 10 years after his retirement from the sport. The 'Master Blaster' recently was a special guest at the 20th edition of the India Today Conclave and spoke on a variety of topics, including the downfall of ODI cricket, which is becoming monotonous and needs a major change to the format, the legendary batter said.
"It's getting monotonous without any doubt. There are two parts. One is the current format and the next is which I feel it should be played. Let me talk about the current format which has been there for a while now… is two new balls. When you have two new balls, it eliminated reverse swing. Even though we are in the 40th over of the game, it's actually the 20th over of that ball.
"But I think it only starts reversing around the 30th over or so. There was a bit of discolouration and the ball gets softer. When the ball started discolouring, picking the shiny and the rough side becomes difficult. That element is missing today because of two new balls," Tendulkar explained.
The batter also revealed that bowlers, and especially spinners, are not too happy about fielding restrictions within the 30-yard circle in the last 10 overs of the ODIs.
"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 the 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.
"The current format is heavy on the bowlers. it's challenging with 5 fielders in the ring and 2 new balls,' he added.
'NEW FORMAT'
While sharing his displeasure with the current format of ODI cricket, Sachin also shared a suggestion on how to tweak the 50-over game, making it fun for fans and more bearable for the cricketers. "Coming to the second bit, we should be playing 25 overs first. Divide it into 4 halves, like in Test cricket. In Test cricket 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. 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.
"Here, if you have 25 overs and the other side comes and bats 25 overs, here at least each side has completed 25 overs," the batter added.
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