Cricket Australia will attempt to sign the death warrant of the traditional one-day game this week by making its domestic competition another version of the booming Twenty20 game.
Terrified that 50-over cricket will be irrelevant when Australia and New Zealand host the 2015 World Cup, CA is hoping its radical new concept will be taken up internationally in the next two years.
Friday's board meeting will consider a detailed proposal to introduce a 40-over, two-innings competition at state level next season as a first step to taking it global.
"The public has been quite clear to us in its communication through extensive research and the strong message has been that we are at peril if we sit on our hands and don't listen to the public message around reviewing and refreshing the format," a CA spokesman told The Australian last night.
I'm not quite sure how this will all pan out. I don't have a problem with reducing the domestic OneDay matches to 40 overs a side (divided perhaps into 2 x 20 over sessions/segments) though I'd be disappointed to see the International version trimmed similarly.
Most first class matches around the world nowadays are of 4 days' duration (though 3 is the minimum requirement) while Test cricket days is invariably scheduled over 5 days.
It's also ironic that as Cricinfo recently reported
In its quest to maintain India's No.1 Test ranking the BCCI has sent a proposal to Cricket Australia to convert the seven-match ODI series in October to two Tests and three ODIs.
How long ago was it that India was an increasingly reluctant Test playing country? And of course we can be sure that its dismal performance (admittedly fielding a second string team) in the ODI triangular series in Zimbabwe has had nothing to do with BCCI's request to CA.
Although CA didn't solicit my views during its "extensive research" I shall await further and better particulars before confirming my initial scepticism of its proposals.
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