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Former English cricketer Moeen Ali has shown concern in the decline of ODI cricket in the last few years and called it the ‘worst format’ to play because of its ‘terrible rules.’ The member of England’ team that won the 2019 ODI World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup, Moeen feels that the ODI format now only became limited to big ICC events like the Cricket World Cup and the Champions Trophy.
Notably, England have been knocked out of the semi-final race in the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025. Apart from that, England were also eliminated from the knockout stage during the 2023 ODI World Cup. “The format has almost completely died out, apart from World Cups and Champions Trophy. It is the worst format to play and I think there are many reasons for that," Moeen Ali was quoted as saying by News18.
“I think the rules are terrible. To have that extra fielder after (the first powerplay), I think it’s a horrendous rule for taking wickets, building any sort of pressure. Guys are averaging 60, 70 in ODI cricket now because of that. When you’re bowling at somebody and you put a little bit of pressure, he just reverse-sweeps and it’s not even a single, it’s a four. It’s just there’s always that option available for the batters (to score)," the former English cricketer said.
Sadly, T20 Cricket is eating it all up: Moeen Ali
Speaking further, Moeen Ali said that in ODI format, the bowlers lose the reverse swing as there are two new balls available in the match. He also mentioned that the rise of T20 format and the franchise cricket has been a main reason for the decline of the 50-over format in the last few years.
“On top of all this, you have two new balls, you lose the reverse swing, you lose the art of trying to hit a softer ball. Everything’s always in the middle and crisp and it’s flying off your bat and stuff. I think for those reasons, the cricket’s just died. 50-over cricket has died,”Moeen Ali said.
“I think franchise cricket is sadly eating it all up and the problem is the money that’s out there and the money that’s being thrown out there. It’s so much that people just can’t turn it down. It’s very difficult. There are probably guys who are probably going to retire in the next couple of years from international cricket to play franchise cricket,” he further added.l
