For BCCI, real Challenge is off the field

English cricket, bossed by traditionalists, always looked upon the one-day game as a sort of necessary evil. The result being that the game was neglected. Till 1997, the England team would play not more than three ODIs at home as part of the Texaco Trophy; six matches if there was a double series that summer.

However, England’s poor showing in the 1996 World Cup held on the Indian sub-continent gave the administrators food for thought. The attitude of the English team and more importantly of the manager Ray Illingworth and captain Michael Atherton to the format was questioned.

Back home, the county game was dying a slow death with crowds getting smaller and with no talent coming in to the game.

On January 1, 1997, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) came into being, replacing the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB), and brought in the winds of change. The next year, 1998, saw the first-ever triangular series in England between Sri Lanka, South Africa and the hosts.

Boosted by that success, the ECB announced in 2001 that England would play seven Tests and 7 ODIs at home every season, which increased to 10 with the addition of the Challenge series two years ago. A paradigm shift from just four years before.

Then, last year, came Twenty20, another event aimed at raising the profile of the domestic game and pulling in the crowds. It’s now gone international: the England and New Zealand women have already played a Twenty20 match this season, the Australians will play two matches when they tour New Zealand later this year and another on their Ashes campaign in England next summer.