One-day International Cricket

A One-day International (ODI) cricket match is a one-day cricket match played over 50 overs per side between two international teams each representing a particular country. Unlike its counterpart, Test cricket, which is played over 5 days and has a history going back to the 19th century, the international one-day game is a comparatively modern development. Some cricket statisticians (e.g. Bill Frindall) prefer to designate these matches as "Limited Overs Internationals (LOI)" on the grounds that the matches can sometimes stretch into two days when weather intervenes. However "One Day International" is the officially recognised descriptor.

The first ODI was played on 5 January 1971 between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. When the first three days of the third Test were washed out officials decided to play a one-off one day game consisting of 40 eight-ball overs per side. Australia won the game by 5 wickets.

In the late 1970s, Kerry Packer established the rival World Series Cricket competition, and it introduced many of the features of one-day cricket that are now commonplace - coloured uniforms, night matches played with a white ball and darkened sight screens, multiple television camera angles, effects microphones to capture sounds from the players on the pitch, and on-screen graphics during television broadcasts. The first of the matches with coloured uniforms was the WSC Australians in wattle gold versus WSC West Indians in coral pink, played at VFL Park in Melbourne on 17th January 1979.

Rules

In the main the Laws of cricket apply. However, in ODIs, each team gets to bat only a fixed number of overs. In the early days of ODI cricket, the number of overs was generally 60 overs per side but now it has been uniformly fixed at 50 overs.

Simply stated the game works as follows:

• An ODI is contested by 2 teams of 11 players each.
• The Captain of the side winning the toss chooses to either bat or bowl (field) first.
• The team batting first sets the target score in a single innings. The innings lasts until the batting side is "all out" (i.e., 10 of the 11 batting players are "out") or all of the first side's allotted overs are used up.
• Each bowler is restricted to bowling a maximum of 10 overs (fewer in the case of rain-reduced matches).
• The team batting second tries to score more than the target score in order to win the match. Similarly, the side bowling second tries to bowl out the second team for less than the target score in order to win.
• If the number of runs scored by both teams are equal when the second team loses all of its wickets or exhausts all its overs, then the game is declared as a 'tie' (regardless of the number of wickets lost by either team).

Where a number of overs are lost, for example, due to inclement weather conditions, then the number of overs may be reduced. Where the number of overs available for the team batting second is perforce different from the number of overs faced by the team that batted first, the result may be determined by the Duckworth-Lewis method.

The bowling team is subject to fielding restrictions stipulating that nine fielders, including two fielders in catching positions, must be inside the fielding circle for a set number of overs. Traditionally, the fielding restrictions applied for the first 15 overs of each innings.

Trial regulations

In a 10 month trial period starting July 30, 2005, the ICC introduced the Powerplays rule as part of a series of new ODI regulations. Under the Powerplays rule, fielding restrictions apply for the first 10 overs, plus two blocks of five overs (called Powerplay Fives) to be used at the fielding side's discretion. The two catchers restriction only applies for the first 10 overs.

The trial regulations also introduced a substitution rule that allowed the introduction of a replacement player at any stage in the match. Teams nominated their replacement player, called a Supersub, before the toss. The Supersub could bat, bowl, field or keep wicket; the replaced player took no further part in the game. Over the six months it was in operation, it became very clear that the Supersub was of far more benefit to the side that won the toss, unbalancing the game. Several international captains reached "gentleman's agreements" to discontinue this rule late in 2005. They continued to name supersubs, as required, but simply did not field them. On February 15, 2006, the ICC announced their intention to discontinue the Supersub rule on March 21, 2006.

Teams with ODI status

The following teams have ODI status. This means that any match between them played under standard one-day rules is classified as an ODI. All these teams are also Test-playing nations with the exception of Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands and Scotland:

• Australia
• Bangladesh
• Bermuda (from 1 January 2006 until the 2009 ICC Trophy)
• Canada (from 1 January 2006 until the 2009 ICC Trophy)
• England
• India
• Ireland (from 1 January 2006 until the 2009 ICC Trophy)
• Kenya (until the 2009 ICC Trophy)
• Netherlands (from 1 January 2006 until the 2009 ICC Trophy)
• New Zealand
• Pakistan
• Scotland (from 1 January 2006 until the 2009 ICC Trophy)
• South Africa
• Sri Lanka
• West Indies
• Zimbabwe

The ICC have recently ended the practice of granting nations permanent ODI status without having Test status. This was originally introduced to allow the best Associate Members to gain regular experience in internationals before making the step up to Full Membership. Bangladesh were the first, followed by Kenya. Bangladesh have since made the step up, but their poor performances have caused the ICC to think again in regard to Kenya. As a consequence, Kenya will lose its automatic ODI status in 2009. The top five teams from the 2005 ICC Trophy, in addition to qualifying for the 2007 World Cup, have been granted ODI status for the period from January 1, 2006 until the 2009 ICC Trophy. At the 2009 Trophy, these five, plus Kenya, will probably then have to qualify by finishing in the top six in the tournament to regain this status, although a decision on this qualification method is yet to be reached.

The International Cricket Council ("ICC") designates all one-day matches in certain international tournaments to be ODIs. The following teams have played at least one ODI:

• Canada (1979, 2003 World Cups)
• East Africa (1975 World Cup)
• Hong Kong (2004 Asia Cup)
• Namibia (2003 World Cup)
• Netherlands (1996, 2003 World Cups, 2002 ICC Champions Trophy)
• Scotland (1999 World Cup)
• United Arab Emirates (1996 World Cup, 2004 Asia Cup)
• United States (2004 ICC Champions Trophy)

Additionally Oman is due to play official ODIs when it competes in the 2007 Asia Cup.

In 2005 the ICC controversially gave ODI status, for the first time, to several matches involving teams comprised of players from more than one country. These were the Asia XI vs ICC World XI game played in January 2005 as part of the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal in aid of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami relief effort and three commercially sponsored "Australia vs ICC World XI" ICC Super Series games which took place in Melbourne in October 2005. The latter matches were poorly attended, generated little interest in the cricketing world and had poor TV viewing figures. It was an experiment which many feel should not be repeated and many cricket statisticians (e.g. Bill Frindall) agree that the matches should not be incorporated into the official ODI records.

Players who have played for more than one team

As there are residency and/or nationality requirements that need to be met to represent a team at international level, usually a player will only represent one team in ODIs in his career. Several have, however, played for more than one team. These include:

• Clayton Lambert (West Indies and United States of America)
• Kepler Wessels (Australia and South Africa) Tests and One Day Internationals
• Dougie Brown (England and Scotland)

Additionally, John Traicos played Tests for South Africa and Zimbabwe, but ODIs just for Zimbabwe, and Gavin Hamilton has only played ODIs for Scotland and represented England in one Test match.

References

• International Cricket Rules and Regulations at the ICC website
• ICC Chief Executives' Committee approves introduction of ODI innovations by Jon Long, ICC website, June 25, 2005, retrieved November 25, 2005
• "ODI changes to take effect in NatWest Challenge" by Cricinfo staff, Cricinfo, June 30, 2005, retrieved November 25, 2005
• "Those new one-day rules explained" by Cricinfo staff, Cricinfo, July 8, 2005, retrieved November 25, 2005
• "The expanding one-day world" by Martin Williamson, CricInfo, January 6, 2006

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