New one-day format could hurt World Cup chances - Ponting
CRICKET: MELBOURNE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Australia captain Ricky
Ponting believes the new domestic one-day format could damage the World
Cup preparations of fringe players.
In a radical departure from the conventional 50-over game, Cricket
Australia (CA) recently announced it will trial a 45-over game this
season split into two innings of 20 and 25 overs.
Ponting, however, has added his doubts over the new format - designed
to revive flagging interest in the shorter game - to those of
Australia's cricketers association.
"We need to be playing as much 50-over cricket as we can with the
World Cup just around the corner," he told reporters on Saturday.
"It'll be okay for the guys that are in the national side, we'll
probably play another 12 or 13 one-dayers before the one day World Cup
comes around.
"The guys on the fringe that are playing domestic cricket won't play
any 50-over games really until that World Cup.
"Probably for the young spinners around Australia in particular,
they're going to find it difficult this summer." The World Cup begins in
February in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Ponting insisted the players should have had more of a say before the
drastic changes were brought in.
"The players probably felt that they didn't have the input that they
probably would have liked to have had," he said.
"I know there's been a lot of speculation about how it's going to be
played, but it's up to the players now to play it as well as they can
and make it a good spectacle."
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