About 35 years back, when in 1971 first One Day Match was played between England and Australia in Melbourne most of the cricket critics were up against this formate of game. In 1975 West Indies won first official world cup. Soon ODIs became a rage with day-night matches, colored clothing, innovative tactics and new strategies adding more excitement to the game.
The World Cup became a regular fixture and Test cricket also changed with more matches throwing up a winner.
Although after its start ODI cricket reached its many heights but slowly the game is facing decrease in popularity, specially in developed countries. ICC tried its best to spread the game world wide but most of the countries refused it because of its time duration.
But then, in 2003 there was time for one more change in the format with another abridged version of the game coming out in the open. It was the Twenty20 in which each team had only 20 overs to play with the match getting over in about three hours.
And just like the first ODI World Cup, we are witnessing the first Twenty20 World Cup these days.
Once again critics are questioning the standard of game. According to them its just batsman's game and many bowlers were also echoing same but hatrick by Brett Lee, match winning spells by Daniel Vittori and Mohammad Asif had proved in twenty20 world cup that if conditions will be favorable then there cant be much better cricket than that, example is India - Pakistan match.
According to reports advertisers and sponsors are also keen on twenty20 format then test and ODI.
Twenty20 world cup in South Africa is the example how a fan can enjoy cricket like a outing with friends and family. One has to just spend only three hours for game. For a cricket fan it is like going for live action rather then movies.
That's for sure that in cricket crazy nation like India popularity and craze for twenty20 will surpass the ODI and that is the reason why rebel Zee Group is starting with twenty20 and BCCI is also following that. England had also announced hike of 25 percent in the twenty20 games from next season.
So ladies and gentlemen you are witnessing the future of cricket which is capable to revolutionize and globalize the game.
