One-day Cricket

Source- ESPN Cricinfo

The One-day Cricket is a form of limited overs Cricket where there is a certain limit set on the number of overs each team will bat and bowl. Both teams get equal number of overs to bat and bowl and this generally consists of just one innings per team as opposed to 2 innings for a team in First Class and Test Cricket. The International form of One-day Cricket is known as One Day Internationals (ODI) while the domestic form is known as List-A Cricket. One-day Cricket as the name suggests ends in a day's time extending upto 8-9 hours.

One-day Cricket was first played in 1971 between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground consisting of 40-overs of eight balls each. This match was the result of a Test match that had to be abandoned following 3 days of Cricket being washed out and the officials decided to conduct this experimental Cricket match. This was a successful experiment as other teams also followed the suit and this led to establishment of ODI Cricket. Initially ODIs consisted of 60-overs of six balls which was then changed to 55-overs and eventually it became 50-overs Cricket.

Australia's media tycoon Kerry Packer really liked the idea of One-day Cricket and he wanted to bring some innovations in this game. He ventured to invest hugely into this form of Cricket and take it to a more competitive level. He started the rival form of One-day Cricket, The World Series Cricket in 1977. The below were the features of World Series Cricket

1. Different teams to wear different colored uniforms as opposed to the usual whites
2. The colored uniforms should become a team's identity
3. Matches should be played at night under artificial floodlights and have a white color ball 
4. Raising the salary of players to the extent that they don't need to rely on any other profession/job as far as their income was concerned
5. Multiple camera angles to give fans a different broadcast experience
6. Use of microphones to capture sound of players from the pitch
7. Better on-screen graphics

The World Series Cricket achieved great success but the International Cricket Conference (formerly known as Imperial Cricket conference) wasn't pleased with this. The straightaway put a ban on this series and on players involved in it. The ban was revoked after few years. Kerry Packer also got a contract from Australian Cricket Board to host matches played in Australia which led to the development of Channel 9 Wide World of Sports network.

However, with the commercialization of the sport they had to upgrade the level of one-day Cricket to the World Series level somewhere around 1992.