The rise of several T20 tournaments coupled with several other factors has resulted in the declining popularity of the longer formats especially ODIs.Audiences for one day cricket slumped by 17 per cent during 2009-10.A match between Australia and the West Indies in 2010 returned the lowest audience seen for a day-night game in 5 years, with an audience of just 625,000

In the past five years, audiences for the one-day games have been in a slow downward spiral, losing between 5 and 6 per cent each year from an average of 1.18 million in 2005, 

There is a plenty of evidence which highlight the fact that ODIs have lost a good number of viewers/spectators

Probably these are some reasons which prompted the ICC to make a few changes in the ODI format. ICC's new ODI rules came into effect from October 1, 2011, . Here's a crisp segmentation of the set of new rules: what each rule actually means, ICC’s intention behind these rules , and how these rules are likely to affect ODI cricket...

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Pakistan becomes the first country to name their squad for the SAARC Twenty20 Cup to be held in Maldives between 31 October and 7 November. The U25 twenty20 tournament is an initiative of the Maldives government and is organised by the Cricket Board of Maldives.

The tournament will be played in a purpose built stadium on the island of Fuvahmulah in the South Province.

Umer Amin to lead Pakistan, Read Full Story to find more:

Pakistan play South Africa on Friday.

Pakistan play Hong Kong and India on Saturday.

QF, SF and Final will be played on Sunday.

The Pakistan Cricket Board and their Bangladesh counterparts have announced a full series that will commence, on the 29^th November, with the only T20 in Mirpur. A further two ODI’s will be played at same venue, with the third and last in Chittagong. A further two test matches will be played with the first in Chittagong and the last in Mirpur. The tour ends on the 21^st December.

 It has come as a surprise as a shorter tour was expected, but will delight the Bangladesh public to see their Asian rivals after the 2009 was cancelled by the Bangladesh Board as a result of the Lahore attacks on the Sri Lankan team.

The second test match started today with the non-selection of Aizaz Cheema in favour of the slow left arm orthodox Abdur-Rehman. This selection caught everyone by surprise but why?

Abdur-Rehman or Manna how his teammates refer to him was named in the Test team of the year for magazine the Cricketer for his achievements in the past 12 months. He took 29 wickets at just under 32 a piece. Add his batting average of 22 along with a top score of 60 against South Africa and the picture isn’t so gloomy.

Yet again, India brushed aside England, this time by a good margin , 95 runs in the fifth and final one-day international in Kolkata on Tuesday to sweep the series 5-0.

Yet again, India brushed aside England, this time by a good margin , 95 runs in the fifth and final one-day international in Kolkata on Tuesday to sweep the series 5-0.


The tourists had their task cut out when india ended with 271 on the board, England started well with Cook and Kieswetter making batting look extremely easy on a pitch which offered a fair amount of assistance to both the spinners and the fast bowlers. They looked on course to chase down 271 till they were 129-0 by the 22nd over..


However the innings subsided in a hurry, they went through an embarrassing collapse and the side which at one stage looked to be on top with 129-0 , lost all 10 wickets for just 47 runs, only to be bowled out for 176.


Jadeja , who picked 4 important wickets was the man of the match . He was well supported by Ashwin (3-28 ). Raina , Tiwary , Aaron picked one wicket each.

Read Full Story to Find out what more Alastair Cook had to say about this pathetic show by English Squad:

A simply amazing show by the Zimbabweans, Waller helps his team to chase a mammoth target of 328 runs. Zimbabwe beat New Zealand by 1 wicket.

In a high-scoring game, twin centuries from Ross Taylor, who made 119, and Kane Williamson, whose 100 came from just 69 balls, were not enough for New Zealand, who nevertheless clinched the series 2-1. Zimbabwe’s Waller faced 74 balls, hitting ten fours and a six, following up half-centuries from Brendan Taylor (75) and Tatenda Taibu (53) to hand Zimbabwe an impressive win.
Waller and Chigumbura started together at the start of the 31st over, with 146 runs required to win and crafted a match-winning partnership. They batted themselves in, faced the spinners - Nathan McCullum and Rob Nicol - capitalised on anything on a length or too full and left New Zealand's bowlers wondering how many more runs they needed to work with.
The chase was filled with twists after Chigumbura and Waller brought the target down to less than a run a ball, Jacob Oram bowled Chigumbura, swinging down the wrong line. He left Waller to marshal the lower order, a task he completed with distinction.
Zimbabwe made a poor start with Nathan McCullum having Vusi Sibanda caught by Brendon McCullum without scoring but they were revived by Hamilton Masakadza's 36 and then half-centuries from Brendan Taylor and Taibu.

MATCH REVIEW : Bangladesh V West Indies 1st Test DRAWN - Courtesy Rain

Bangladesh 350 for 9 and 119 for 3 drew with West Indies 244  and 100 for 2.

The 1^st Test between Bangladesh and West Indies at Chittagong, was lost to rain, thought it was the Bangladesh side whom looked to have enjoyed the game the most, by the way they batted and bowled. The debutant Elias Sunny put on a marvelous show with 7-wickets bagged. Shahriar Nafees also impressed us by some quality batting in the second innings, which raised Bangladesh’s lead to 225. The pair, Tamim and Nafees, did successfully dodge the bowlers, though Tamim fell first, who was caught behind, but Nafees played well and carried out the batting, as he’d done the way before, towards a well-deserved half-century. 

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Just a few weeks ago Pakistani fast bowler created sensation with his claims that –Sachin was not a match winner and he didn’t know the art of finishing games. Now Former indian coach Greg Chappell has stirred another controversy, in his new book "Fierce Focus" he claims claims batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has occasionally been “mentally fragile”

Read Full Story to Find out what Chappel said about Sachin:

Earlier in the day, ICC announced Twenty20 rankings for the last 2 years. England topped the chart with Sri Lanka being the runners up. Then Feature New Zealand and South Africa.

Due to their poor run under Captain Shahid Afridi, Pakistan is placed at the 7th position according to ICC's new T-20 Rankings.

 In individual records, Eoin Morgan (Batting Department), Mendis (Bowling Department) and Shane Watson (All-Rounder) stood first in their respective nominational categories.

Notable entities from Pakistani Camp are Shahid Afrdi, Muhammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal and Umar Akmal, with Shahid Afridi being the pick of the lot who is ranked as Second Best Twenty20 all-rounder after Australian Shane Watson. Mohammad Hafeez is placed at Number 4 of that All-Rounders List.

Amongst the bowlers, Saeed Ajmal stood 3rd, Shahid Afridi is placed at 6th and Umar Gul at 21st position.

Umar Akmal is the only Pakistani Batsman in the Top 10, who is positioned at that number 8th position.

Read Full Story for a detailed list of New Rankings, which also includes list of top Batsmen/Bowlers/All-Rounders and All Team Rankings: