Countries need to balance domestic leagues and international schedule: ICC

The ICC board met in Birmingham and discussed at length how to keep the format alive. "About relevance of ODIs, we talked about the structure of the game an d the way they are incorporated in FTP is countries and fans in different countries have different preferences with regards to formats. I think at this stage there were some discussions not specifically about ODIs but mix of formats within the calendar," ICC CEO Geoff Allardice said on Tuesday.

"Countries in their FTPs are still incorporating a healthy number of ODIs. You won't see any significant change to the number of ODIs or proportion of ODIs being played," he added. ICC chairman Greg Barclay conceded that the members are facing challenges with the proliferation of T20 leagues and bilateral cricket.

Ben Stokes retiring from ODI fuelled the debate around the sustainability of players playing all formats. "We have got limited amount of time in the calendar. A lot of cricket is played through ICC events, bilateral cricket, T20 leagues.

As far as the tipping point is concerned, I am not sure but there's definitely pressure on members to wade their way through. What they also need to take into account is that players themselves won't be certainly able to sustain the amount of cricket being played," Barclay stated. "There are a number of members who are giving particular attention to their domestic leagues.

But the commitment of members to bilateral cricket and commitment to international cricket has been as strong as it has ever been. Members have to manage the balance between domestic competition, international schedule and management of their players," Allardice. Few of the current international players floated the idea of reviving multi-nation tournaments.