Since the English All-Rounder, Ben Stokes declared his surprise retirement from one-day international cricket, quoting fatigue and workload management, numerous different players, both current and former, have expressed concern about the expanding cricket calendar, with many claiming ODIs are losing value and importance.

Another English all-rounder Moeen Ali has stated that the One-Day International (ODI) format is in grave danger of it being fazed out, calling it a “long, boring format.” He also mentioned how playing all three formats of the game is currently unsustainable.

As the T20 format is in great popularity right now, the One Day Internationals format is losing its shine states, Moeen Ali. This big comment came in the middle of the argument where the former greats were already discussing the future of the ODI’s. In a conversation with Cricket365, Ali expressed his belief that ODIs will go down in history as significance in the 50-over game dwindles with each glancing day. He stated that if this trend continues, players will no longer be eager to participate in this format in a few years.

“At the moment it’s not sustainable in my opinion. Something has to be done because I fear losing the 50-over format in a couple of years because it’s almost like the long, boring one if that makes sense. It’s almost like you’ve got T20s, you’ve got the Test matches which are great and then the 50 overs is just in the middle – there’s no importance given to it at the moment,” he added.

“It just feels like it’s going that way and there’s nothing you can do because I think the interest in 50-over cricket is not there as it probably once was. So yeah, having won it (World Cup) in 2019, it’s a difficult one because I genuinely feel in two to three years’ time, nobody’s going to want to play it. It’s a bit like our domestic stuff here at the moment; there’s the Hundred while the 50-over (Royal London ODI Championship) is going on and there’s not that much interest in it compared to the County Championship, the Vitality Blast and the Hundred,” Ali said.

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The 35-year-old left-handed batsman, who is also an excellent spin bowler, believes the timetable is unsustainable and that the 50-over format will be phased out. With so many tournaments being played in a year now, he predicts that more players, like Stokes, will retire from ODIs in the coming years. “International cricket in all three formats is by far the best cricket to play. There’s no doubt about that, but I do worry that there are so many tournaments out there that players are retiring more now and you’ll see more players retiring soon”, he also added.