Gautam Gambhir World Cup column: This is the best chance to revive the ODI format

It is bizarre to see an event of a sporting format being coloured in all possible happy shades while simultaneously a dark farewell is being planned to bury the format itself. It’s a bit like when someone is handed out a lifetime achievement award.

A dedicated showreel of the maestro is played to a standing ovation, there’s a sea of emotions and an outpouring of admiration. Yet in a subtle way the message is: “Thank you very much, your time is up.”

Similarly a myopic, commercial, lazy and vision less set of administrators are in a hurry to hand out farewell to the 50-over format. To the extent they are claiming that this ICC World Cup could be last of its kind.

I am not sure if that is what the game or its fans like me want. Like all other products, ODI format just needs some tinkering for the new customer in a changing market scenario.

This is where the administrators need to use their common sense and be courageous. Know your customer: my businessman father says this is the first rule for an entrepreneur.

In their heads they have assumed that since their customer is ordering food on an app, cracking a business deal on video calls, sorting grocery and life-partner online, maybe he finds the ODI pace boring.

I am not sure if that is true. While we all love to keep flicking those reels on our phones or consume short-form content, we still like to spread out on a recliner in a multiplex to watch an over 3-hour film! Which tells me if the content is good, duration becomes irrelevant.

Unlike T20s, the ODI format gives a team a fair chance to revive after a false start. A bowler may have been hit in the power-play but he still has a hope to counter-punch. You will soon see how the captains in the ODI World Cup starting today will be tested as this format doesn’t run on set patterns like the T20s. They are playing opposition, conditions and passages of play which are varied. Plus, those in in commentary box, myself included, need to innovate in our storytelling abilities.

Shubhman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer etc. are ready to become household names. Let's take the fans up close to the next generation.

One of the other simple things that administrators, media and we the broadcasters can do is celebrate the bowler a little more. I loved the Asia Cup final where Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah blew away Sri Lanka for 50 runs.

I mean, how often do you see the ball darting around both ways with so much accuracy, creativity and consistency. It was great for the audience. There is no harm in having a better balance between bat and ball rather than playing on flat tracks.

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