Unless they CHANGE the rules for ODI middle overs, ODI format will
slowly die because people who got used to slam bang T20s entertainment
won't watch 7 hours ODI anymore for many reasons of lack of time, lot
more entertainment alternatives and just plain short attention span.

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https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/mark-nicholas-mcc-president-odi-cricket-world-cups-1400719

Mark Nicholas: ODI cricket should only be played at World Cups

Incoming MCC president believes club needs to make better use of soft
power to retain relevance

Mark Nicholas, the incoming president of MCC, has called for 50-over
cricket to be played exclusively at World Cups, in a bid to preserve the
ODI format from what he describes as the "supernatural" power of T20.

Nicholas, who succeeded Stephen Fry this weekend as president of
cricket's oldest and most prestigious members' club, added that his
views echoed those of MCC's World Cricket Committee, which met in July
to call for ODI cricket to be "significantly reduced" outside of World
Cup years.

"We believe strongly that ODIs should be World Cups only," Nicholas told
ESPNcricinfo. "We think it's difficult bilaterally now to justify them.
They're not filling grounds in a lot of countries. And there is a power
at the moment to T20 cricket that is almost supernatural.

"It's more than just ticket sales. It's the amount of people that want
to own franchises, the amount of countries that want to run tournaments,
it's the amount of players that want to be in a market all around the world.

"In a free market, the most money wins. And that's just the end-game.
The players can see that bubbling away and they want to be a part of it.
So, it is an extraordinary power that T20 has, and I think scheduling
50-over cricket alongside it just continues the story of the death knell
of the ODI game."

Nicholas concedes that his comments, on the eve of the 2023 World Cup,
are unlikely to hold much sway with the ICC unless they can be crafted
into a properly structured proposal, but he believes that the issue
could be one of the ways in which MCC makes better use of the "soft
power" that the club is still capable of wielding, even if its days of
direct involvement in the sport's administration are long gone.

"How much more relevant can MCC be?" Nicholas added. "Is there a danger
we're losing our relevance in global cricket thinking? Can we use our
World Cricket Committee better? Can we use our massive list of Honorary
Life members, [which has] the outstanding players of the modern era and
the era before on it.

"The problem at the moment is that the ICC see us a bit of a threat," he
said. "When we put our head above the parapet, they're like 'whoa,
settle down, we run the game'. So we need to integrate better with ICC,
we need to understand each other better. We need to develop thinking
that comes together."

Nicholas' tenure as president comes at a tricky juncture for the club,
particularly in the wake of the recent Independent Commission for Equity
in Cricket (ICEC) report, which castigated MCC for its elitist
tendencies; accusing Lord's of being a place "predominantly for men",
and calling for an end to its hosting of the traditional Eton-Harrow and
Oxford-Cambridge matches to make way for more women's and state-school
cricket at the venue.

However, as the founder of Chance to Shine, the charity that has
introduced cricket to more than 6 million state-school children in the
18 years since it was established in 2005, Nicholas comes to his MCC
role with a proven track record for community engagement, and hopes that
his year as president - which coincides with the MCC Foundation being
granted a further £1 million to double its number of community hubs from
77 to 150 - can help to highlight the club's enduring relevance to the
grassroots game.

"I've always felt that MCC could do a better job with the development
game and could make more of a point of supporting kids who aren't as
lucky as lots of us who have been to a private school," Nicholas said.
"There is an element of the club that might be elitist but a lot of
members involved in the grassroots of the game just get on with their
business. I feel that that we're quite a long way down the road in many
of the areas that the ICEC report hammered us for.

"But it's difficult. The bricks and mortar of the club matter too. If
you sell out the first two days of a Test here, you can't then give
tickets to 500 kids, because there's nowhere to sit. We sell out our
matches … so do The Oval and Old Trafford too, but MCC always get blamed
because of the tag. So, I would love to work away at the tag."