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England's red-ball skipper Ben Stokes recently retired from ODIs citing overburdened schedule. After hanging up his boots, Stokes came heavy on the busy schedule by claiming that cricketers are not cars, who can be filled up and be ready to perform and fueled up again.
The England all-rounder further stated that there is too much cricket being rammed in for people to play all three-formats and it is getting lot harder than it used to be. "I look back when I used to do all three and it didn't feel like it was jam packed," he said.
Stokes' retirement from 50-over format of the game has sparked a debate amongst cricket fraternity over packed schedule and significance of ODIs amidst tradition Test cricket and growing popularity of T20 cricket. Also the proliferation of franchise cricket has added more workloads to the players' schedule.
In the latest development, former Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram has voiced his opinion by suggesting to scrap one-day internationals from the ICC calendar. While speaking at Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club Podcast, Akram claimed that the format is being played just for the sake of doing it. "After the first 10 overs, its just okay, just go a run a ball, get a boundary here and there and add 200, 220 in 40 overs. Then add more 100 runs in last ten over. Its kind of run-of-the-mill," said Wasim Akram.
He further claimed that one-day internationals is being played just for the sake of doing it. "In England, you can have full house. But, in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa, one-day cricket is not going to pull crowd in the stadium," added Wasim Akram.
Former Pakistan cricketer is also of opinion that T20 cricket is the most popular format and need of the hour. "The shortest format is the most demanding. After T20, ODI cricket seems it is going on for days. So players are focusing on the shortest format and the Test cricket," he said.