A whole (almost) new ball game

The 2009-10 Australian summer was a horrible one for ODI attendances but there were enough television viewers to satisfy the broadcasters. Having West Indies and Pakistan as the struggling drawcards didn't help, especially since it was only two seasons since the introduction of head-to-head contests to liven things up following the replacement of the 29-year-old tri-series. After 10 games in 29 days, with nine Australian wins and a no-result, there was overwhelming relief when the summer's ODI component finally died.

On January 5 it will be 40 years since one-day cricket was born, growing slowly initially until it exploded in the late 1970s. It changed the sport forever without becoming immortal. Phase three has occurred over the past decade with Twenty20 and it has quickly downgraded the revolutionary 50-over concept into a fight for survival.

Despite support from the ICC, which needs the genre for its lucrative World Cups, it seems impossible that the current format will remain recognisable. Former players, including Shane Warne, think it should perish and it would be no surprise if it was pensioned off in the next 10 years. South Africa and England don't compete in any 50-over one-day games at domestic level, preferring 40 overs to the international standard.

In Australia the administrators are currently planning much more than a simple 20% cutback. Rather than trimming a format slowly being reduced to un-coveted ashes, Cricket Australia is involved in a dramatic redesign in which all reasonable ideas - and some wacky ones - are being considered. Over the next month the proposal for split-innings fixtures, played over four 20-over pieces, will be formalised in the hope of partial implementation in next summer's FR Cup, the inter-state one-day tournament. A swift trial is necessary to start the persuading of the rest of the international world that this is a winning method for the 2015 World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

It means that many of the concepts that made addicts of a new generation of audiences over the past four decades will be ditched in favour of new flavours. Victor Richardson, grandfather to the Chappell brothers, was fond of saying everything in the game had been done before. It's not always true, but cricket is a sport that relies on recycling.

The starting point for Cricket Australia's re-inventors is an 80-over match split into quarters. Team A bats for 20 overs in the first and third innings and defends its score in the second and fourth segments. England played a split-innings tour match against a Western Australia XI in 1994-95, so the officials are looking back 16 years to go forward. That fixture was a one-off during a period when all sorts of games were being concocted to revive interest, including Super Eight and Cricket Max.

Split innings were trialled in an England 2nd XI competition this year with mixed, and obvious, results. Some games were close and exciting, others were one-sided and boring. Just like in two-innings 50-over affairs, Tests or backyard games.

Cricket Australia's aim is to increase strategy in the contest and make it less predictable. To do this they are discussing sensible ideas, such as two short-balls an over between shoulder and head height, and radical ones, like allowing a star batsman to bat twice. They want more excitement while being conscious of not drowning in gimmickry that will eliminate the project.

Sadly, what can't be changed quickly is the glut of meaningless fixtures because of scheduling commitments and long-term broadcasting deals. Television stations love the duration of one-day cricket and its end-of-over advertising slots; players and administrators are always talking about fewer games and greater context. Cricket Australia's figures for average ODI television audiences show more than 1 million viewers for eight of the past nine seasons. Last summer the number came down to 846,000.

Officials argue people switched off in all formats because Australia were dominating weak opponents. The ODI concerns peaked when West Indies lost their first three wickets within five overs in three of the five matches. A rainy night in Sydney was the main player in preventing a 5-0 result.

Making the game more strategic is a worthy pursuit, although no amount of potions and focus-group feedback can prevent a weak team from being outclassed. Three for 11 in the 55th over of a two-innings match still makes the game more interesting for longer than if a side suffers the same fate in the 25th over of a split fixture.

However, Cricket Australia says it knows what its fans want. The marketing department has conducted 1200 surveys with supporters, who continue to enjoy the ODI game but believe it needs updating. Test cricket remains the style those fans were most fanatical about, achieving a mark of 54% from respondents, putting it ahead of one-day cricket (52%) and Twenty20s (48%).

Crowds at one-day internationals have dropped over the past decade in which the style has been squeezed by the committed interest in Tests and the dramatic rise of Twenty20s. For Australia, the deepest trough came in February when the two ODIs against West Indies at the 90,000-seat MCG were watched by 25,463 and 15,538 people. Despite this the genre remains the version most people follow. "Interest is holding up, but it's an important opportunity to reinvigorate ODIs and improve them," Cricket Australia's marketing manager Julian Dunne says.

In the research Dunne has found that a key consideration is most Australian supporters want to see their team make runs. "If Australia bat second at the MCG the crowd is 25% higher," he says. "In split innings you get to see Australia bat and bowl at night." If the plan to employ a super striker is approved they will be able to watch David Warner or Ricky Ponting have two lives. That would make the casual supporter happier.

During a cross-country exercise - what the politicians would call a listening tour - Dunne and Geoff Allardice, Cricket Australia's operations manager, have been speaking to supporters, players, sponsors and broadcasters about the possible changes. A minimum of four bowlers to deliver the 40 overs, more generosity on legside wides and fewer fielders outside the inner circle are some of the admirable ideas. Dunne and Allardice acknowledge there are some shortcomings to the package, but are confident a plausible alternative to 50-over games can be ready by October.

If successful, it will mean there are five different forms of the game played in Australia this summer: five-day Tests, four-day Sheffield Shield contests, 100-over one-dayers, 80-over split innings affairs, and Twenty20s. Two of the formats will be applied in the same FR Cup competition as the organisers attempt to marry the new idea with the traditional structure so it will not hamper the Australian players' fine-tuning for the 2011 World Cup.

Cricket Australia's board will vote on the final submission next month and something very unusual - perhaps a committed revolt from the players; Michael Hussey says it doesn't sit right - would have to occur for the split-innings system not to be implemented. It took almost a century for Test cricket to gain a sibling, but the modern one-day game can now change in an off-season.