Tag World Cup

One day cricket may no longer be the most feted form of the game, but once every four years it emerges, Cinderella-like, as the belle of the cricket ball For 94 years, Test cricket was the sport’s only international format, played over five days, sometimes six and once even 10, though the 1939 ‘timeless’ Test between South Africa and England ended in a stalemate as the English had to catch a ship back home. Then, on January 5, 1971, One-Day International cricket reared its head tentatively, almost apologetically, in Melbourne. The first three days of a scheduled Test were washed out. Instead of a meaningless two-day Test, officials from Australia and England agreed on a 40-over, eight-balls-an-over face-off, a revolution that took cricket by storm with the subsequent advent of coloured clothing and day-night skirmishes. The two versions co-existed reasonably peacefully for 34 years. From time to time, the overwhelming popularity of the 50-over game would lead doomsday experts to sound the death-knell of the longer version but the five-day game has more than managed to hold its own. The dramatic emergence of an upstart, however, has threatened the establishment over the last decade and…