ICC to consider 25-over split for one-dayers

as saying by BBC Sport. This might work in day/night cricket where one team have to bat in day and the other at night. It provides something different and reduces the effects on the team who lose the toss and have to bat first on a damp wicket,for example, he said.

Richardson said if the trial was successful at domestic level,it could get a go ahead at the international level on an experimental basis. The concept could resuscitate one-day format,which has been increasingly threatened by Twenty20 cricket. The England and Wales Cricket Board has,in fact,scrapped its 50-over domestic cricket competition to accommodate more T20 matches.

Tendulkar had observed that under the existing ODI format,about 75 per cent of the results could be predicted after the toss itself. However,two innings of 25 overs would drastically reduce the influence of toss in favourable conditions.

While Richardson admitted that the new concept could prevent results from becoming predictable,he said splitting the innings would also mean less run-scoring opportunities.

I dont necessarily like the idea of playing two matches of 25 overs each with the openers batting again. The charm of one-day cricket is seeing someone batting at four and scoring a good hundred.

If you bat in the middle-order of a Twenty20 or a new 25-over innings,youre not to get much of an opportunity to hit three figures,one downside of the Twenty20 game, he said,but added: The bottom line is if we can come up with a product that is better than the existing one,then everyone would like to look at it.

South Africa looks set to trial the changes during one of the rounds of its domestic season. The ICCs cricket committee is set to meet again in 2010 when the results of the experiment will be discussed.