Twenty20 has rendered ODI irrelevant: Warne

T20 has rendered one-day cricket inappropriate and the 50-over format should be done away with, according to spin great Shane Warne.

"I'll say it again; one-day cricket should go. It has evolved into T20," said the Australian star, asserting the game would be better off with just two formats.

"Cricket only wants two forms of the game. Something needs to be done about scheduling: it's been going on for too long," Warne wrote in his column for 'Herald Sun'.

The leg-spinner, who led Rajasthan Royals to a legend triumph in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League, remains a halt supporter of the T20 format and believes one-dayers simply has no business in the international calendar.

Shane Warne was equally critical of Australia's post-Ashes schedule which pits them against the same English side for a 7-match ODI series.

"Unfortunately, Australia now plays a series of ludicrous limited-overs matches against England, and then more one-dayers in South Africa & India, before the next Test in Brisbane in November.

"It is a joke that any international team has to play 7 ODIs after a 5-Test series against the same team," Warne said.

"There are only 9 Tests between now and the next Ashes series in Australia at the end of next year, but a ridiculous number of one-day cricket in the same era," he added.

Richard Hadlee says T20 could destroy Test cricket

One of the great all-rounders the game has known, and indubitably New Zealand's greatest ever player, Sir Richard Hadlee has made a strong request to the game's rulers: Don't let down our game.

Hadlee added his voice to the rising concerns of Twenty20 cricket via-a-via the traditional Test matches.

Heaving match schedules, the growth of Twenty20 and the vast financial lures for players from the IPL demand firm controls being put in place by the International Cricket Council, he says.

Hadlee was not induced that the game's ruling body had the forethought and vision to put aside monetary gains for the overall benefit of the game.

"We are in serious danger of having the decision makers betraying the game of cricket," said Hadlee.

"Everything evolves and things keep changing, but this is a revolution within the game of cricket.

"It's new, profitable, successful and brings in massive money. The danger is overload, that you have too much of it, and it swamps other forms of the game and compromises them.

"If one format of the game like Twenty20 eats the game as much as it is doing now - and potentially in the future - it is destroying the game of cricket as a total concept."

"The IPL is franchise cricket, it's club cricket, it is not international cricket. We are two years into it and you can see potentially that there will be more and more of it. It will consume the game. Once it has gone too far and people have grown bored with it, it will have destroyed test cricket and probably 50-over cricket," he said.

Coincidentally, Hadlee's comments came just a day after Shane Warne had advocated scrapping ODIs, and providing a window for the IPL.

Four new places announced for IPL III

Four new places and a third place play-off match will be launched in the III Indian Premier League which will get happening in Hyderabad on 12-3-2010 with a game between IPL II 2009 winners Deccan Chargers and the Kolkata Knight Riders.

The final of the 45-day Twenty20 cricket league, which showed a huge success in its first two editions in India and South Africa, would be held on April 25, IPL Chairman Lalit Modi declared after a meeting of its Governing Council at Mumbai.

IPL III will have four supplementary match staging centres - Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Dharamsala - and will also stage one extra match, the 60th, for the third place play-off, Modi said.

"The playing pane remains the same, 45 days", Modi mentioned, before adding that the Governing Council also decided to include two more franchisees in IPL IV to be held in 2011.

"There would be 94 games in all with each franchisee playing 18, instead of 14 preliminary phase games. But the pane would remain more or less the same," Modi said.

Afridi named Pakistan T20 Skipper

Shahid Afridi's dream of leading the Pakistan team came true as the glitzy all-rounder was today appointed skipper for the Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka in next month.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today ready an announcement to this effect but there was no mention whether Afridi would continue at the rudder of the country's T20 team.

"The chairman of the board, Ejaz Butt, has selected Afridi to lead Pakistan for the international against Sri Lanka," a spokesman for the PCB said. "A decision on future Twenty20 matches would be taken later on."

Afridi's slot came as Younis Khan stepped down after leading Pakistan to the Twenty20 World Cup glory in England last month. Younis Khan made it clear that he considered himself too old for the T20 format of the game and would not take back his decision.

Afridi, who connected the touring squad for the ODI series and the T20 tie last week, had earlier made it clear that it was his lifetime ambition to lead Pakistan in at least one international match.

The five-match ODI series is starting in Dambulla tomorrow, while Pakistan will play the only T20 match on 12th August in Colombo.

Afridi has captained his city, local and departmental teams in domestic cricket with mixed success.

"The decision reflects that the board and selectors are concerned about future of regular vice-captain Misbah-ul-Haq in the Pakistan team particularly for limited-over cricket," one source said.

He has played in 23 Twenty20 internationals, scoring 371 runs at an average of 19.52, as well as claiming 33 dismissals at an extraordinary average of 15.57.

Sourav Ganguly back as KKR captain

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly is likely to lead the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 3rd edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Sourav Ganguly led in the inaugural tournament in 2008, but was controversially replaced by Brendon McCullum in 2009 - a decision that the then coach John Buchanan made.

Ganguly met authorization owner Shahrukh Khan in England when he was there to watch the ICC World Twenty20 Championship, and they talk about captaincy as well as appointment of the new coach of the team for the next season of the twenty20 IPL tournament.

According to sources, the KKR management will like to declare the decision later in the middle of August once the new coach is appointed. Though team management prefers Dave Whatmore for the job, Ganguly prefers John Wright.

The conclusion has come about because McCullum is likely to busy for a large part of the tournament since he will be on duty for New Zealand.

MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh to play in Corporate Trophy

A galaxy of the country's peak players, including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, are likely to take part in the inaugural Corporate Trophy limited overs tournament to be held from September 1 to 8.

Six centres: Chennai, Bangalore, Mohali, Cuttack, Dharamsala and Delhi have been short listed as venues and the draw and fixtures are expected to be announced by the BCCI on July 27.

The BCCI has already finalized 12 teams, including two from Air India, and four more corporates could be added to the line-up, in a tournament that will be boost for the upcoming short tour of Sri Lanka.

The Lanka-bound cricketers are expected to feel a short conditioning camp, either in Bangalore or Chennai, lasting four or five days at the end of August before they stand for their respective companies in the Corporate Trophy, according to BCCI sources.

Among the AI players who are expected to play Dhoni, showy batsman Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh as well as Irfan Pathan.

Miandad: T20 is 'fast food' & a bad habit

T20 is a 'fast food', bad habit and is posturing a major threat to Test cricket in the sub-continent, feels former Pakistan Test captain Javed Miandad.

Miandad spoken concerns over suggestions from the ICC to decrease Test cricket matches to four-days and introduce colored balls and colored clothing under lights in the traditional format of the sport.

"There is no doubt that Twenty20 cricket is undermining Test cricket and they are many reasons for this, take India's example. Players like Yousuf Pathan are more popular than most of his more illustrious teammates because Twenty20 cricket is in these days. It is just like fast food, a bad habit," Javed Miandad said.

Miandad, however, felt that the future of Test cricket faced no threat in countries like England, South Africa, Australia where it was still popular.

"It is in countries like Pakistan and India where it is under threat. One reason for this is also economic conditions of the people. Everything is so expensive for our masses," he said.

There have been suggestions from the ICC President, David Morgan about reducing Tests to four day matches instead of the traditional five days.

Morgan has said that Test cricket faces a challenge from the growing popularity of twenty20 cricket and there is a need to look at revamping the traditional format of the game.

However, Miandad cautioned the ICC against trying to change the traditional format of the game.

"Any moves to reduce the number of days in a Test or introduce night matches and colored balls will only prove counter-productive," he said.

The former Test captain said instead of taking measures that can threaten the spirit of the game the ICC should be looking at other ways to ensure all forms of the game survive together properly.

"The ICC should involve more former players in consultations and find ways to keep interest in Test cricket alive. As it is now Test cricket is about 90 overs a day you can't do more to get results," he said.

"Test cricket must remain the way it is or else cricket will lose its special appeal to the people as well. Cricket lovers want to see Test matches," he said.