LISA STHALEKAR: Australia would be wise to take one-day cricket more seriously after Pakistan series loss

Have we just witnessed the death of one-day cricket?

It has been languishing at death’s door for a while now, but the humiliating loss to Pakistan in front of 19,000 people in Perth on Sunday could be the Australian public and our top cricketers reading it its last rites.

It was a bitter pill to swallow watching us lose against a defiant Pakistani side.

The series defeat was the first time since 2018-2019 against India that Australia had lost an ODI series on home soil.

You’d have been forgiven for forgetting we are the reigning World Cup champions.

Pakistan simply outplayed the Aussies throughout the series and their win was even more remarkable as it was their first one-day series this year.

Given the amount of upheaval off the field, this win has certainly lifted their spirits.

For Pakistan it was their first series victory on Australian shores in 22 years, one that the players will look back on fondly for some time to come.

In previous visits to Australia, Pakistan have struggled in all formats, having only won two games out of the last 28 matches played.

With the series level Australia made five changes for the third match at Perth Stadium, a venue that the Australian’s haven’t had a lot of success at, and ushered in a new skipper, Perth’s very own, Josh Inglis.

Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood didn’t travel west so they could prepare for the first Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy series in Perth next week.

It was not a great look to have the Aussie skipper living it up at a Coldplay concert at the same time his team was getting rolled by eight wickets.

Australia had already lost the expertise of both Travis Head and Mitch Marsh for the entire series due to paternity leave.

You would think that it might have been advantageous to play on the same surface you are about to play on for the first Test match, but more importantly with the one-day series still up for grabs, Australia should have been looking to play their best team.

To add fuel to the fire, Australia will play just one more one-dayer against Sri Lanka before they play the next ICC event, The Champions Trophy, in Pakistan in February.

Given that the five players rested, plus the two who weren’t part of the series, are going to feature in that 50-over event, 12 matches in less than two years isn’t ideal preparation.

I will be fascinated to see how Australia fair with this minimal preparation.

Resting players is a part of cricket given it’s a sport that has no off-season, but the fans and the broadcasters are being robbed when the big stars are absent from games they should probably be playing in.

Though I am sure the Perth fans were excited to see Inglis, pictured below, captain his country for the first time and WA boy Lance Morris play his first game for Australia in nine months.

But as a collective fans were fuming, and Cricket Australia isn’t entirely to blame for the debacle.

With a crowded and congested calendar, keeping white-ball bi-lateral cricket relevant is getting harder.

“I think what this schedule has really shone a spotlight on is that the travel schedule (between each match) into such a big series is critical again. This is about thinking ahead and getting players through in the best possible condition,” CEO of Cricket Australia, Nick Hockley said.

So does one-day cricket outside of the big tournaments even matter anymore?

Where does it fit into the calendar and what is the point of these series apart from adding to the broadcast rights deals? And is it worth it if the best players are not playing and therefore the fans don’t care?

I once remember when one-day cricket was as big, if not bigger, than Test cricket in Australia (depending on our Test opponent).

Back then the game wouldn’t be shown in the home state if it wasn’t sold out, encouraging fans to get down to the ground.

But these days barely anyone shows up to watch the games with the value of the broadcast more important than ticket sales.

Over the course of the three one-dayers against Pakistan over 67,000 fans rocked up and I would hazard a guess that over half of those fans were Pakistan supporters wanting to catch a glimpse of their heroes.

Fans only turn out these days when a real trophy is on the line.

But the quality of cricket at these tournaments is under threat given less and less one-day cricket is being player outside the tournament cycles.

Between 2015-2019, Australia played 62 ODIs, however from 2019-2023 that fell by a third to 41.

And between 2015-2019 there were nine five-match series but that was reduced to two for the next World Cup cycle.

All stakeholders need to find a better way of engaging fans to support 50-over cricket.

Scheduling and ensuring Australia’s best are on hand, bar any personal injuries or circumstances should be a priority.

More care should be made in planning our home summers, so the one-day series is not sacrificed for the Test matches.

Our focus now shifts to taking on India in red-ball cricket, but there is a T20 series against Pakistan starting tomorrow.

We presume our best players can easily transition between formats, but each has its own demands and skills and this should not be taken for granted.

Australia was found out at the T20 World Cup this year when, after minimal preparation, we suffered a humiliating defeat to Afghanistan to end our title hopes.

With a new generation coming through the ranks Cricket Australia may not have the luxury of playing its B-side when it suits them.

The loss to Pakistan highlights that nothing can be taken for granted, not your opponent and especially not your fans.