By Niharika Raina
New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS): When England Test skipper Ben Stokes made the announcement to retire from ODI cricket citing an unsustainable schedule after the first of three matches against South Africa at his home ground in Durham, the cricketing world was left in shock.
No one could comprehend how the all-rounder arrived at the decision to walk away from a format which led to England winning the 2019 ODI World Cup on home soil.
Now, ahead of the release of his documentary 'Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes', on Friday, Stokes revealed he was undecided over which white-ball format to retire from till the first ODI against India at The Oval ended.
After India won by 10 wickets, Stokes got the 'when you know, you know' feeling, an inkling which comes when a person realises or understands something, he/she definitely knows it's true.
"It was a tough decision. But also at the same time, it was pretty simple for me because I always had it in the back of my mind that I would have to walk away from one of the white-ball formats. I wasn't sure which one and wasn't going to make a decision until I was clear in my mind which one was it going to be. You people say they retire from anything that when they know, they know."
"It was after I finished the first One-day game against India at The Oval and even just on the evening of that game, that was my 'when you know, you know' moment. It almost hit me in the face just like that. As hard as it was to know that I will be not playing this format again after my last game in Durham (against South Africa), it was also a decision that was made pretty easy because of how quickly it hit me."
Since Stokes chose to step away from ODIs, the future of the format has been the subject of a relentless debate over its future, especially with the proliferation of franchise T20 leagues. When quizzed about the future of ODI cricket and how it can be made relevant when T20 cricket is currently the dominating format, Stokes suggested reducing the number of overs from 50 to 40.
"The last thing anybody wants is that there is a format which will be taken away from the people. Maybe there is a way ICC can look; maybe restructuring the schedule or even re-doing the format. You look at England now, with The Hundred they have made it look a completely new format of cricket. But that still goes alongside the T20 version.
"Something that could be looked at, this is my own personal opinion and my view is that, maybe they could turn 50 overs into 40 overs? I mean, when I first started playing professional cricket, it was CB-40 (Clydesdale Bank 40 overs a side tournament by ECB). That was a really good format to play in. Nowadays, it would just have been the extended version of T20 cricket.
"I personally think that at the end, you would have seen the same scores anyway whether you do 40 overs or 50 overs. Because there is so much cricket, is there a way the schedules or formats could be looked at to still keep the three formats, but maybe less cricket, which I think making 40 overs instead of 50-overs could be a solution. But I think there's got to be a lot more thought that could be put into it. The last thing you want for the sport is for a certain format to be completely chucked away."