Former India coach Shastri agreed, highlighting the possibility of international cricket targeting World Cup tournaments. “I always said that bilateral cricket will suffer, there is no doubt about that. With the competitions spreading around the world, it will become the way of football. The teams will come together just before the World Cup, they play a little bit or bilaterally , clubs release the players and you play the mega World Cup, so in the long run it will be like this whether you like it or not.
Shastri admitted that this did not bother him. “I don’t feel bad at all”, but he added that “one of the game’s abilities will suffer. I think it will be 50-over cricket.”
Moody went a step further, suggesting that the one-day format could even be replaced by T10 cricket, and that the continued expansion of the T20 could result in only a handful of countries taking up Test cricket.
“That really tells me there will be very few countries going to play Test cricket, it’s as simple as that,” Moody said. “The rest is going to focus on white-ball cricket, and I’ll add another format that can replace 50-over cricket and that could be T10. I see that as a potential, not a game changer, but a move to the next step forward for the IPL to consider expanding on this incredibly successful property.”
All this leads to a situation where players have to choose between their country and their club and Shastri, for example, understands why they may be tempted to choose a club. Especially those who are not able to reach the highest level. India has a plethora of such players, but whether the BCCI will allow them to participate in various competitions is still a matter of debate.
“Look at the number of people in this country, we are 1.4 billion and only 11 can play for India,” said Shastri. “What will the others do? They have the chance to play white-ball cricket, it’s their strength, globally, in different franchises around the world. Take that chance. It’s common sense, it’s their livelihood. It’s their income No one will be able to deprive them of this [players] are not contracted by BCCI. What’s stopping them from going?
“There’s nothing like getting exposure. How much do they want to protect their own league? You have to see where they’re coming from, and rightly so. This is our league and protecting this league is paramount as far as our interest goes. But by letting certain players go, it will not affect the competition in any way.”