Leading Edge: How many ODIs is too many?

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

IF we knew how much one-day cricket was too much, we would also know the length of a piece of string. But, with a World Cup just months away, there are no strings attached and there is no such thing as too much one-day cricket.

SA played 11 of the infernal 50-over things from July to September and they will play 13 more before the end of January.

And then, and only then, will they begin their bid for what has been as unattainable for them as Don Bradman’s batting average has been for everyone who has picked up a bat: a World Cup trophy.

You might wonder what Andrew Hudson, Russell Domingo and AB de Villiers do not know now about SA’s one-day strengths and weaknesses that they will know in 13 games’ time.

You might also wonder why those strengths could not be consolidated and the weaknesses not minimised without having to go through the motions 23 times before the real thing arrives.

But success in one-day cricket, the most unimaginative form of the game, depends on inculcating the soullessness of endless repetition into the unfortunates who have to play it.

Those whom the ODI gods wish to elevate to champions, they first make catatonic with still another slew of ODIs. You can see as much in the dead eyes of everyone who is on the field when the ball is no longer new and not yet old.

Unless, of course, the players burn out before opening night - which in SA’s case is February 15, when they play Zimbabwe in Hamilton in their first match of the 2015 World Cup.

In fact, to think about what a particular player is getting up to is often to remember that they are injured or being rested.

Currently, that list features Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Ryan McLaren, Beuran Hendricks and JP Duminy - all bar Hendricks first-choice selections, and Hendricks is not far off that pace.

How much longer the line-up of sick, lame and lazies might be another 13 ODIs into this never-ending story is too scary a thought to entertain on a pleasant Sunday morning.

SA will play three ODIs in New Zealand next month, five in Australia in November and another five at home against West Indies in January.

Variety? But of course. They also have three T20s in Australia and three tests and three T20s against the Windies between the beginning of November and the start of January.

That’s right, sportslovers, you can see a fistful of T20s in the run-up to a World Cup but don’t for a second think you could smuggle an extra proper game of cricket - like, one that’s scheduled for five days - in there somewhere. Ain’t gonna happen.

So, best we get on with pretending ODIs are interesting outside of the first and last five overs of each innings.

Of course, if SA find a way past their opponents and, just as importantly, themselves, to win the World Cup, scheduling all these ODIs will be proclaimed as genius for the next four years.

Which, of course, is as long as a piece of string.