Fifty over cricket: just so vanilla

Neapolitan ice cream = Cricket

Image via Wikipedia

Fifty over cricket is suddenly the runt of the cricketing litter.  We know what happens to the runt.  To start with, it gets the leftovers, but when the rest of the litter’s appetite increases the leftovers suddenly disappear.  It hangs on for a while, then it dies.

When the ECB decide that it isn’t worth cramming their schedule full of something, you know it’s in trouble.  Some important people say ODIs should be dropped from the international calendar altogether.

Twenty20 is faster, Test cricket is tougher.  Twenty20 even has a snappy name that calls to mind perfect vision, imaginative brilliance.  And having a snappy name is the way to get ahead in our modern world.  And then it struck me – rename 50 over cricket and you end up with the perfect descriptive name.

Fifty50.

It’s neither one thing nor the other.  Not quite a Test match, not quite an exciting slog-fest.

Fifty50 is maybe I will, maybe I won’t.  A half-way house.  The vanilla portion in a neapolitan ice cream.

This is reflected in the tactics.  Have a bit of a thrash early on to get going, then potter about for 20 overs before another thrash to finish off.  And repeat.  It’s not an all-out dash for runs, nor is it a war of attrition.

This form of cricket won’t die for a while yet – there are contracts to be fulfilled and motions to be gone through.  But it will.  It might be “re-imagined” into a two innings version of Twenty20 or something.  But it will still die.  Nothing Fifty50 about that.

Enjoyed this post? Share & follow...