Oz selector Hughes not in favour of CA's shorter version of ODIs

Melbourne, Jun 16 (ANI): Australian selector Merv Hughes does not think there is anything wrong with 50-over cricket and sees no reason to tinker with the format, despite Cricket Australia's decision to introduce split innings for their domestic limited-overs tournament next season.

Cricket Australia is all set to dump 50-over games domestically next season and experiment with a 40-over, two-innings format.

The move follows on from the decision in England to abandon 50-over county cricket in favour of 40-over contests.

Hughes said the traditional form of one-day cricket, criticised for being boring and lacking context, had more substance than the instant gratification of the Twenty20 game.

"A lot of people are worried that that [50-over cricket] will die off but I don't think it will," The Daily Telegraph quoted Hughes, as saying.

"A lot of people like the first 15 overs and the last 10 but I'm particularly interested in the overs from 15 to 40 and the teams that do well there normally win the tight games. It is a game with a little bit of substance. I think it's a good game as it is," he said.

"With a World Cup coming up next year it's important the players prepare for it the best they can."

Hughes said he did not believe T20 represented the future of the game.

"Twenty20 is all about wham, bam, thank you and move on to the next game, where it really has no substance," he said. (ANI)