Pakistan pace bowling legend Wasim Akram feels ODI cricket has become “run-of-the-mill” stuff now and wants the administrators of the game to scrap the format for good. Akram’s comments came close on the heels of England all-rounder Ben Stokes’ sudden retirement from ODIs, which has triggered a serious debate over the existence of 50-over cricket.
“I think so (ODIs should scrapped). In England you have full houses. In India, Pakistan especially, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, one-day cricket you are not going to fill the stadiums,” he said in Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club podcast.
“They are doing it just for the sake of doing it. After the first 10 overs, it’s just ‘OK, just go a run a ball, get a boundary, four fielders in and you get to 200, 220 in 40 overs’ and then have a go last 10 overs. Another 100. It’s kind of run-of-the-mill.” Akram supported Stokes’ decision to quit from ODIs, citing “unsustainable” workload.
“Him (Stokes) deciding that he is retiring from one-day cricket is quite sad but I agree with him,” said the left-arm pacer, who scalped 502 wickets in 356 ODIs during his career, besides bowling Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup final.
