Cricket Australia may try forty-overs one day cricket matches
The cricket board of Australia, the Cricket Australia, is said to be thinking on the lines of scrapping off their 50 overs, domestic competition and introducing a forty overs one. what is surprising is that they are planning to do it as soon as next year, which means that just before the start of the 2011 edition of the World Cup, they would be looking at having changed their domestic one-day set-up. They have also said that the format could well be a two innings, twenty overs an innings, to be completed in one-day.
This means that there will be two T20 games played one after the other, with the runs and wickets unchanged over the two innings.
The issue with this is that the fifty overs World Cup will be played in 2011 in February in the sub-continent, and having a 40-overs competition before such a competition may cause an issue for the Aussie players. There are already question-marks being raised over the future of the 50-overs World Cup as it is currently played and with the introduction of these changes in Australia, much like how it is in England and South Africa.
The President of the Australia’s cricket association, Darren Lehmann said that while he was happy to make changes to the format in order to look at the future of the game, it had also to look at how it affected the players given that the World Cup was so near the Aussies domestic season.
Lehmann said, "Maybe reducing the overs to 40 per side is not a bad start, whether we can do two 20 over innings is something we need to discuss. My personal preference is to go to 40 overs per side, but I'm open to all ideas to improve the game."
A Cricket Australia spokesperson has already said that there was nothing to worry about the World Cup given that the Aussie cricket team would have had their fill of international fifty overs game by then.
Earlier, South Africa and England have implemented the forty overs cricket in their domestic structure as well.
The rules involved in the South African forty overs competition, or the Pro40s as it is known as are as follows:
45 to 40 overs:
Earlier, the competitions used to be of 45 overs, but in the last October, this was changed to 40 overs a side. This made the games much more quick and much like the same manner in which the fifty overs game was played.
12 a side:
This format also allowed the teams within the domestic set-up to go ahead with 12 members in the side, instead of the customary 11. 11 players can bat, and at any particular time, there can only be 11 to bowl and field. This 12th guy can bat or bowl and sit out for the rest of the time. This one is especially good for those players who have a difficult time fielding, thanks to the lack of fitness!
PowerPlays:
20 overs of the 40 will be Powerplays, but three and four fielders outside the circle for the two blocks of five each.
Rain rule:
To ensure that the game remains quick, the overs will begin to deduct as soon as the players go off the field for the rain. Usually, there is a one to two hours of buffer time, but this will not exist in the Pro40s. After every 20 overs of the innings, there will be a strategic time-out, which seemed to have come from the second edition of the IPL.
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