Gilchrist believes ODI cricket will be extinct after the 2015 World Cup

Former Australia wicketkeeper batsman Adam Gilchrist believes that ODI cricket will cease to exist in three years time given its notable decline over the past number of years and the rapidly increasing number of domestic Twenty20 tournaments.

Gilchrist noted that the popularity of ODI cricket in Australia had severely decreased since the introduction of Twenty20 cricket and added that he would be surprised if the format still existed after the 2015 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, which is set to be hosted in Australia and New Zealand.

“I reckon about three years, as I see it, and it will be pretty much gone,” Gilchrist told radio station Triple M. “There is a World Cup in 2015 – I believe TV deals are all locked away to get to that, and those commitments will be fulfilled. But after that I think it will be history.

“I suspect that one-day cricket may be obsolete in about three years’ time.

“I suspect that after that the appetite for it might diminish, and all the TV programmers and the administrators will be focusing on the two other forms (Twenty20 and Test cricket). Twenty20, let’s face it, is the revenue stream that keeps the longer version alive.”

During the Australian summer of 1999-2000, 456,264 spectators attended ODI matches, however, that figure has since plunged all the way down to 251,916 as of last season.

However, despite a fall in the number of spectators, Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young stated that the board did not agree with Gilchrist’s views.

“The World Cup is the world’s fourth-biggest sporting event,” Young said. “It’s got a viewing audience of a billion people.

“Our own research shows when you measure the affection of cricket with the Australian public that ODI cricket has still got a lot of life left in its legs.”