'No Relevance To ODIs,' Modi Calls For Two-Phase IPL Expansion

image-lopacselFormer IPL commissioner Lalit Modi (Twitter)

Lalit Modi finds "no relevance" of One-Day Internationals in cricket's hierarchy of formats and believes the 50-over version will cease to exist in the future despite the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 gradually helping reinvigorate the interest levels and generating crowds across venues in India. 

A controversial figure, the former commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) reckons the death of ODI cricket is imminent and that the game's custodians shall prioritise and conserve their energies towards safeguarding Test match cricket and further popularising the T20 format domestically and internationally. 

Speaking to 'RevSportz' amidst the widespread debate on the future of ODIs, Modi says he foresees cricket becoming a two-format sport, with the sustainability of the pinnacle Test format also dependent on how much it suits the contemporary audiences with a declining attention span. 

Modi said the size of a Test match reducing from five-day to four-day cricket with most, if not all, fixtures transforming into Day-Night matches to attract prime-time audiences could be the way forward for the traditional game. He also advocated an idea for the further growth of the mighty popular IPL. 


Lalit Modi Denounces Future Of ODIs; Calls For Two-Tier IPL 

"Where do I see cricket in India? I see 50 overs going, completely. I see no relevance to it. It's there for the sake of being there. I see relevance in a four-day Test, not five days, and a day-night Test because people don't have the luxury to sit from morning to evening. If it's a day-night Test, they might go after office hours to watch the game," Modi said when asked to predict the future of the sport in a decade's time. 

Modi also spoke on the future of his brainchild Indian Premier League and advocated for the introduction of a football-style two-tier set-up with 10 teams each in different tiers and the two-place promotion and relegation system. 

"I'm not part of the BCCI. If I was there, I would definitely be thinking of launching a second tier, with ownership coming in - not at the valuation of a billion dollars, but at valuation of 60 to maybe 100 million. This was the valuation of the IPL in year one. That can be up to 20 teams, coming into the secondary league, and two teams are relegated [from the IPL]," Modi said. 


"Instead of four foreign players, you'd have two. Or maybe you'd need four because you need more talent to be trained up. What the foreign players do is bring in locker-room discipline, and provide the experience that made them what they are today," he added.