Jacques Kallis emphasised the importance of keeping a balance between all three formats of cricket.
The Proteas legend gave his insights in his latest column for the ICC.
“I think this World Cup has demonstrated the importance of the 50-over game to cricket. It’s shown there is definitely still a place for it in the modern game.
I do feel there needs to be one or two little tweaks going forward because I think bowlers are really finding it tough on good wickets when they are under pressure.
So the old format when after 10 overs you’re allowed five fielders outside the circle, I think the bowlers do need that option, especially the spin bowlers.
That’s the one tweak I would like to see in the one-day game, give the bowlers something back. The wickets shouldn’t always be 350-plus wickets as well.
Sometimes you have to find a balance between bat and ball and give the bowlers something to work with, especially with the new ball to make those first few overs a bit tougher.
That will give the bowlers a little bit more of a chance in those early overs and force the batting teams to play a bit smarter in that period of the game.
I do believe people are really excited that 50-over cricket is still getting supported the way it is, certainly, we could make one-day series not as long as they sometimes are.
Rather than five or seven one-day games in a series, make it a little bit less so there’s more weight to it, but at the end of the day, I think the World Cup was a success this year.
Test cricket must always remain the No.1 format and that must be driven by the players, the players are driving it as that’s the form of the game where you really get tested.
We have to make sure we look after that and then T20 cricket is what it is, the only danger is that there might be too much of T20 cricket so there’s a fine balance between want and need.
We need to be careful we don’t overkill T20 cricket, but I think cricket is still progressing well with the three different formats and it’s just a case of a few tweaks here and there.
It is important that there is that balance between bat and ball in one-day cricket and by having that extra fielder out, by having wickets that offer the bowlers a little bit of something.
Otherwise, who wants to be a bowler? It’s hard work as it is and that’s why keeping that balance is vital so each guy gets a fair opportunity to showcase his skills.
I think South Africa now have a couple of series coming up against India and then England are coming to us at the end of the year so a lot of the focus will be on Test cricket now.
The guys will have to turn their focus to that and after the hiccup in the Test series against Sri Lanka earlier this year, they will be very keen to get back on track.
I think in Test cricket we’ve been pretty decent other than that one series, so the players will be looking forward to a break and then they’ll be looking to get started again.
But this ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup has definitely lived up to expectations. I had a little bit of concern beforehand that the bat would overpower the ball.
That’s not necessarily proven the case. We’ve seen in a lot of the games it’s been a fair contest which has made for an exciting tournament and some exciting results.
I for one have been very impressed by it and I feel really good about 50-over cricket going forward because this World Cup has been a great showcase for the game.”
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