Cricket is going down the path of football: Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev. Picture/ AFP

Former India captain Kapil Dev feels that the International Cricket Council (ICC) needs to put more time into ensuring the survival of One-day as well as Test match cricket.

The growth of franchise T20 leagues has raised a serious question marks over the future of ODI cricket, and concerns for its future down the line, including Test cricket. The ODI retirement of England Test captain Ben Stokes due to a jam-packed unsustainable schedule has raised even further doubts about the future of 50-over game.

"I think it's fading out. The ICC (International Cricket Council) has a bigger responsibility how to manage this game. It's going the way as football in Europe. They don't play against each country. It is once in four years (during the World Cup). Is this what we're going to have, the World Cup and the rest of the time playing club (T20 franchise) cricket?"

"In a similar way, will cricketers eventually be playing mainly the IPL or the Big Bash or something like that? So the ICC have to put more time into that to see how they can ensure the survival of one-day cricket, Test match cricket, not only club cricket," Dev was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Dev, the 1983 ODI World Cup winning skipper, was guest of honour at the India-Australia Strategic Alliance dinner celebrating 75 years of Indian Independence in Sydney. He went on to fear that with South Africa and the UAE having their own T20 leagues early next year, international cricket could just be restricted to World Cups.

"Club cricket is OK for a while. The Big Bash is OK. But the South African league is coming, the UAE league is coming. If all the countries are going to play the club cricket, then international cricket will be only for the World Cup."

South Africa's T20 League, scheduled to be held in January and February 2023, will be directly clashing with UAE's International League T20 (ILT20), to be also held in January next year. Both leagues will be operating in the time when Australia's Big Bash League (BBL) and Bangladesh's Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will be on.

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