ONCE upon a time this would have been important. Australia leads the 50-over series against England 2-0.

This is presumably of mild significance to the players’ close family and a smattering of their friends but that would be about it.

Merv Hughes, the tour guide who helps pick Australian sides when not counting heads on the bus to the London Tower, might have poked his noggin in at Lord’s on Sunday night to take a gander and jot down a few thoughts. Like who is Callum Ferguson? Why is Brett Lee still here? Who brung Adam Voges?

The legitimacy of this seven-match series is a mystery, too, to the commentators. They began Sunday’s broadcast with a debate about the relevance of 50-over cricket, whether it should be overhauled, shortened, split into innings of 20 overs. Michael Holding made a rather valid point that to reduce 50-over cricket to a 40-over fixture was not to modify 50-over cricket but abandon it.

Shane Warne thinks this form of cricket is dead and he is doing his best to bury it. Test cricket and Twenty20 are the only forms worthy of pursuit. Dean Jones, an aggressive thinker about the game, says the sporting community is tired of the format and wants it reduced to capture the rush of Twenty20. He says South Africa and England do not play it in their domestic fixtures and Australia should give it away after its sponsorship commitments finish.

It is a game that has lost its purpose. The shorter 20-over game gives supporters Read more…

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