South Africa’s decision to prioritise their T20 league over ODI series against Australia is a sign of things to come

The move, a first of sorts, has prompted a serious rethink about the future of bilateral contests going forward with financial insecurities plaguing multiple cricket boards.

Except India, and to a degree Australia and England, almost every cricket board struggles financially. And the Covid-19 pandemic further worsened the situation. And the response from most has been to latch on to the T20 cash cow. Viable or not, this is the way forward. Sponsors have queued up to support these leagues in most cases. With international stars looking to turn free agents (some already have), it is expected that these leagues will mount a serious challenge for bilateral international contests.

Take the ongoing India versus England ODI series for example. With the 50-over World Cup still more than a year away, this is a series totally devoid of context. So, when we celebrate Jasprit Bumrah and his excellence, the truth is these three games are just going to make up the numbers for the two boards. The T20Is had context given the World Cup is just months away.

While in the case of India and England money isn’t an issue, for boards like South Africa the choice is between these irrelevant bilateral series and their own T20 leagues. And the answer is a no-brainer.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has tried to bring context to the bilateral ODI series by introducing World Cup Super League and qualification points but monetary considerations seem to have outweighed everything else in importance and significance.

With the BCCI seeking a 75-day window for the Indian Premier League (IPL) and most likely will get it as well, the future of the 50-over format is unclear. While the World Cups and Champions Trophies may survive, bilateral series will sooner than later cede ground to domestic T20 leagues.

Consider this: if the BCCI is given a choice to extend the IPL for another 15 days as against a bilateral series involving six ODIs in the same window, what would it prefer doing? The answer is a potential knock out.

However much Cricket Australia might express concern over the South African pull out, it is a pragmatic choice driven by hard financial considerations. It is time the cricket world also accepts the challenge and braces itself for it.

With the United Arab Emirates (UAE) launching its own league in January 2023, the already cluttered cricket calendar will get further crowded in the months to come. And with most of these leagues offering the players top dollar, most would prefer them over relatively unimportant national engagements.

We have already seen West Indian stars do this for a while and the South Africans did the same in this year’s IPL. It was inevitable that the boards would wake up to this reality. Rather than losing players to domestic leagues, they will now try to prioritise their own leagues over international contests.

The biggest casualty of this is expected to be the 50-over bilateral format. While the T20s have economic relevance and Test cricket is still the priority for the purists, the 50-over format is neither here nor there. The new age fans prefer T20 domestic leagues over international 50-over engagements any day.

That’s where it gets interesting for the ICC and the national cricket boards. Will they continue with the meaningless bilateral series in the long term or rethink the fixtures in view of the fast-evolving scenario?

Going forward, some would be tempted to use the success of the 2023 ODI World Cup in India to justify the popularity of the format. To do that will be to miss the trees for the woods. Firstly, the cricket market is forever vibrant in this part of the world. Second, it is a multi-nation tournament which has serious relevance for the cricket fan. But it won’t prove that the 50-over format will continue to have takers. It is therefore fairly safe to predict that world cricket will see considerable turmoil in the years to come. Unless some serious rethinking is undertaken the 50-over bilateral series could soon be a thing of the past.