Meaningless cricket being played by countries: Hayden

Sydney, Nov 21(ANI): Former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden and Cricket Australia board member has said that cricket is being overplayed and undervalued around the world.

Hayden's comment comes after the tedious seven-match series Australia recently played against India and England, including which the world champions played a record 40 one-day matches this year.

"I don't buy this 'more is better' mentality. We should have an obsession with perfection," The Australian quoted Hayden, as saying.

The 36-year-old said that ODI series' should be limited to no more than five games.

Hayden also said that the Future Tours Program being prepared by the International Cricket Council, which will map out in detail the international schedule from 2012 to 2020, would not work in its current format and it would create too many meaningless matches.

"It doesn't matter whether you're in a small town in country Queensland, on the Tiwi Islands playing cricket with indigenous kids or following the Ashes tour in England, the message is always the same. The fans want quality cricket," he added.

He further stressed the need for a World Series to provide a World Test Champion every two years, which would help fulfill the need of meaningful Test cricket.

Hayden has formulated the World Series in a detailed dossier 'The Future of World Cricket' compiled by him.

According to the dossier, eight Test nations would be divided into two groups, with Australia and England in one and India and Pakistan in the other to protect their iconic series.

Three Test matches will be played by each group, and the top two teams in each group would them play semi-finals, followed by a final. This ensures that every game played by each of the eight nations has meaning, and consequence, making for exciting and no doubt dramatic competition, Hayden wrote. (ANI)