28th September and all that

When the history of One Day Cricket in India is written, 28th September will find a mention in bold. Exactly 23 years ago on this day, Australia played the first of the five match ODI series at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi. Ashok Patel, who soon faded into oblivion, made his debut for India in that match.

But obviously, this isn’t the only trivia associated with the match.

28th September marked the first official ‘Day/Night’ match in India. That, it was also the first ever official day/night match played outside Australia, makes it even more significant. I am saying ‘official’ because, almost exactly a year before this match, on 21st September 1983, Kirti Azad had single-handedly scripted one of India’s first and most famous wins over Pakistan in a day/night encounter on this very stadium. The match was however accorded a ‘festival tie’ status.

So when the Australian team led by Kim Hughes, played the first day/night ODI match in New Delhi, little did they know that it would be the harbinger for what has essentially become an Asia centric format today. Little did they imagine that the novelty of day/night cricket coupled with India’s success in England in1983 and Australia in 1984/85, was to spell death knell for Test matches in India.

As the Aussies, led by Adam Gilchrist, take field for the first of seven ODIs, cricket is once again at similar cross road. The success of Twenty20 World cup, and more importantly, the success of Asian teams in the inaugural championship, has put a question mark over the future of Fifty50 format. Can the Twenty20 do to Fifty50, what the latter did to Test cricket in India?

I am inclined to believe so, unless ODI format undergoes a radical change and reinvents itself.

Foot Note:

September 28th also marks Lata Mangeshkar’s birthday. A known cricket buff, she was amongst the lakhs of Mumbaikars who treated MS Dhoni and his team to a grand welcome on Wednesday. Dhoni must be hoping that the next seven one dayers against Australia are as melodious as the ‘Sargam’ or the ‘Seven Swaras’ of the nightingale.

But beyond these ‘Seven Swaras’, Sachin would be hoping to play his own Octave – a string of 12 consecutive one-day matches – seven against the best team in the world and remaining five against his traditional rivals.

With over 15000 runs and 41 hundreds to his name, there isn’t a thing that Sachin needs to prove in the shorter version of the game. And 2011 World Cup looks miles away.

What better way then for Sachin, like all maestros, to end his great ‘One Day Mehfil’ with a classic rendition of ‘Bhairavi’ at Jaipur on 18th November 2007?