ODI matches should be 40 overs per side, says Shastri

AHMEDABAD: With the ODI World Cup in the country less than seven months away, former India chief coach Ravi Shastri has raised the pitch for future editions of the ICC global tournament to be 40-overs-a-side affair to give it a fresh lease of life. “For one-day cricket to survive, I think it should be reduced to a 40-over game in the future,” said Shastri on Day Four of the fourth India-Australia Test here on Sunday. “The reason I say this is because when we (India) won the World Cup in 1983, it was a 60-over [a side] game. Then, the attention span of the people diminished and it became a 50-over game. I think the time has come for it to become a 40-over game. Evolve with the times. Reduce the format,” added Shastri.