CA’s preference for BBL over ODIs would hurt chances of hosting successful 2015 WC

Sydney: Cricket Australia (CA) is giving more importance to the domestic Big Bash League (BBL) over international one-day matches and it can hurt country’s chances of hosting a successful fifty-over World Cup in 2015, according to cricket writer, Malcolm Conn.

“Cricket programming in Australia is broken. The naming of a second rate one-day team yesterday highlights how desperately the schedule needs tearing up and rewriting,” Conn wrote in his column for News.com.au. “Open up the first half of January to the Big Bash and play one-day internationals when the best players have recovered from the Test series. One-day cricket is already in enough trouble, squeezed as it is between the Twenty20 game and Tests,” he added. “The cobbling together of this nondescript side is simply putting a gold-tipped dagger through the heart of the 50-over game. One-day crowds in Melbourne have been in steady decline over the last decade or so and are likely to fall off a cliff on Friday,” he further wrote. Conn added: “Adult ticket prices for Friday’s match at the MCG range from 35 dollars to 145 dollars. Big Bash tickets for a family of two adults and two children are 42.50 dollars.” “It is not hard to pick the most attractive option when there is no star appeal in Australian colours,” he wrote. “There is an understandable emphasis on preparing for the 2015 World Cup and some exciting young players have been given an opportunity,” he added. “Australia needs to keep one-day cricket buoyant if it is to host a successful World Cup with New Zealand in a little over two years,” he concluded. ANI