OPINION: Is it time for one day cricket to be consigned to the history books?

A thoroughly underwhelming Champions Trophy competition came to a boring end on Sunday when India eased to a four wicket win over New Zealand to lift the trophy.

It was the return of a competition that was thought to have been binned, after it was last held in 2017, but was subsequently revived and will be held again in India in 2029.

Even without all the travel controversies, which included India getting an overwhelming advantage by being allowed to play all their games in Dubai, which also meant that tournament hosts Pakistan had to travel out of their own country to play their arch rivals, the cricket on the field was just boring.

There was barely any excitement as most matches were won comfortably, with the most exciting game being Afghanistan’s impressive eight run win over dismal England.

The next closest game was the final which India won with six balls to spare, but in chasing a low score of 252 to win they never looked troubled after a century opening partnership, despite losing three quick wickets, and in the end cruised home easily.

Support lacking

Support for the competition was also lacking, after the hosts were dumped out in the pool phase, with only cricket-mad India consistently seeing their games close to sold-out.

Unfortunately, due to excitement and theatre of T20 cricket, one day cricket is slowly fading away, as it becomes less interesting.

Test cricket is still seen as the purest form of the game, with plenty of fans still interested in it, but one day cricket is falling by the wayside, and it seems that teams have also lost a bit of interest in the format, based on scores over the past year.

It seemed for a while that teams would try and make 50-over cricket more exciting by replicating what they do in T20 cricket.

This led to some mammoth scores in the format, with England hammering an incredible 498, the highest ever ODI total, against the Netherlands in 2022, while they also cracked 481 against Australia in 2018.

Arguably the greatest ODI match in history was between the Proteas and Australia at the Wanderers in 2006, when the visitors amassed 434/4, only for the hosts to chase it down scoring 438/9 in response.

But those days seem to be gone as a score in excess of 400 has not been scored since 2023, when it happened five times, with the biggest total in 2024 the 381/3 scored by Sri Lanka against Afghanistan.

So the question has to be asked, with the amount of T20 cricket being played around the world, and interest in Test cricket still decent, is there a space for one day cricket and is it still needed?