ODI Super League : The context and promise that it could deliver…

Back in 2017, ICC made an interesting announcement of introducing 'ODI Super League' - an ODI league post the 2019 World Cup which was aiming at reigniting the otherwise reducing interest of cricket viewers. It was supposed to start from May 2020 and be played over 23 months and would involve 12 Full Members plus the Netherlands – who won the 2015-17 World Cricket League Championship that involved 7 other Associate Members. In this ODI Super League, each team would play against 8 mutually agreed opponents over that period with 4 home and 4 away series with 3 ODIs per series.

As per the ICC, the league was proposed to ‘add more context’ to bilateral ODIs played among entitled ICC Full Members and would also give a ‘fair shot’ to all the full members and the 13^th team to direct qualification for the 2023 edition of the 10-team 50-over World Cup to be played on Indian soil. Fairness of the second remark therefore is still debatable but adding more context to somewhat meaningless bilateral ODI cricket can be seen as a high.

From the general trend that has developed over the years, it can be seen that ODI matches played outside Asia do not create a strong buzz among the sport’s followers their and matches have been subjected to half-filled stadiums and even the broadcasting deals behind the scenes had started to lose value. That only showed that interest was diminishing and it could be because these Full Members have been getting direct entries into ICC tournaments and matches outside such tournaments have started to be taken for granted. Virtually, there is nothing at stake other than changes in the ODI rankings that may follow such a series. This current system is opposed to how FIFA and regional confederations in Football regulate their tournaments where all the teams other than the hosts have to ‘fight’ for their spot in the finals tournament. Such a context had been lacking in world cricket so far. Therefore, this league can help in reigniting the enthusiasm of the sport’s followers and eventually bagging some ‘serious’ broadcasting deals and ticket revenues are also expected to rise.

The ODI Super League is obviously far more vital for the lower ranked Full Members and the 13^th team – the Netherlands. Since only the teams finishing in the top 7 plus the hosts will get direct entry to the next World Cup and remaining two spots will have to be decided by qualifiers, there is lot more than just matches that is at stake for teams like Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan and the Netherlands. Add West Indies or Sri Lanka to that as they both are vulnerable to ending up outside the top 8 by the time the league ends! And the team finishing last will go through a prolonged phase of pain and uncertainties as it might have to fight another group of eager-to-be big boys currently involved in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 and ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge Leagues ‘A’ and ‘B’ and find its way up again through the Qualifiers to become the thirteenth team again for the next four year cycle.

Ireland has always been critical of more guaranteed fixtures against established Full Member sides | Credit : Facebook - Cricket Ireland (facebook.com/CricketIreland/)

This is not the first time though that ICC has put emphasis on ICC ODI rankings to add more importance to the bilateral fixtures. There was a cut-off date for automatic qualification for 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and West Indies failed to qualify for the event. But in the absence of a system like ODI Super League, there was a lack of uniformity in the number of 'contextual' matches a team would play. As a result, some teams would play more matches than the others and would get an opportunity to improve their rankings before the cut-off date giving them undue advantage over other teams.

There is another catch in this whole set-up. Teams can still arrange bilateral ODI fixtures outside the Super League and teams like West Indies and Sri Lanka can manage to get more matches even in the face of losing out on direct qualification for the World Cup but for smaller members, it’s always been hard to get some valuable fixtures. That effects the growth of the profile of the sport in their country and also challenges their financial sustainability. Between 2011 and 2015 World Cups, Ireland hardly played 10-odd ODIs in bilateral fixtures against top 8 sides combined.

Dutch side won the 2015-17 ICC WCL Championship and got a place in ODI Super League | Credit : Facebook - KNCB (facebook.com/KNCB1883/)

Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands keep on playing regularly among themselves and the entries to the matches are mostly free and matches are often not televised. This means that there are not enough resources to generate revenues but expenses keep on recurring. Securing some ‘contextual’ fixtures against quality sides like Pakistan or South Africa would allow an Associate Member to bag some valuable broadcasting deals (even if it happens at local levels) and priced ticket entries which can help in generating some revenue needed to drive the growth in the right direction. Recently, KNCB had posted the ticket prices for their home matches against Pakistan this July on its Instagram handle - matches have been postponed due to unfortunate pandemic situation though. Such fixtures give these bodies confidence of taking further steps for betterment of the sport in their country by bringing in more investments.

Though this much coveted ODI Super League will definitely increase the value, quality and stakes in top tier ODI Cricket, the proposed ‘shot to glory’ for not-so-big boys has been made gloomy by the ‘mega’ 10-team World Cup. Adding to it, difficulties from financial sustainability and planning point of view that have been presented by current pandemic situation around the world have pushed the fate of this league into further uncertainties as there are rumors that ICC might scrap it altogether.

It will be a very derisive and degrading blow to the fate of this ODI Super League which had allegedly met resistance from some influential member representatives at the ICC even before the confirmation of this league going ahead was officially announced. If that happens unfortunately, reforms which the cricketing world has been awaiting for so long might get pushed out further in the cold.