One of franchise cricket’s leading guns for hire, Ravi Bopara, said he “did not like how the 50-over game had been treated” amid the global proliferation of short-form tournaments.
Bopara, a former England Test and white-ball international, has played for T20 and T10 teams in a host of countries, including India, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa and Bangladesh.
This weekend he was on the move again, having flown from the United States, where he was part of Chicago’s team in the 10-over National Cricket League, to play for England in the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes.
Now a gun for hire, Bopara made his 120 one-day international appearances between 2007 and 2015, when 50-over cricket retained its importance and kudos.
England sent a young team to the West Indies for an ongoing one-day series, while the formerly blue-riband English domestic 50-over competition has been relegated to a development tournament.
“I really don’t like the way 50-over cricket has been treated, I see some of the scores and the standard, and the diminished 50-over competition [in England] and find it sad,” Bopara told the Post.
