50-over format a test of skill and endurance

While a T20 is a one-tempo game and provides a sensory overload, a 50-over ODI has several layers and stages in it

- Tushar Bhaduri

WHAT MAKES HIGH-quality cinema different from a routine potboiler? Why is one analysed as an elite art form while the other is considered just a means of entertainment, that too often of dubious nature? It's probably got to do with the nuance and subtlety involved, which demands more of the practitioners as well as those who watch it.

They need to be more observant, aware, and intelligent to appreciate what they see on the screen.

The difference between a 50-over ODI and a T20 can be explained on similar lines. While the latter is a one-ten game and provides a sensory overload, the longerwhite-ball format has several layers and stages in it, with teams and individual players required to don different roles and showcase different facets and skills.

The attention-deficit era we are living in and the rush for quick gratification have been cited as reasons responsible for the perceived diminishing popularity of the ODI. It requires more investment from the viewer in terms of time as well as emotions. But if indeed the format is on borrowed time, the game would be left poorer by its demise because a good ODI is more than just ready-made entertainment. It provides a better and fairer sporting contest than a T20 fixture. On the evidence of the ongoing World Cup, where else can one find a score of 388 almost successfully chased and on the same day, 229 being defended by a mile? South Africa's nerve-racking one-wicket win over Pakistan when two tail-enders took them home, was another example of the excitement and tension the format can generate.