ECB's switch to 40-over game baffles Strauss

Melbourne:

Clearly not a fan of a shortened 40-over format, England captain Andrew Strauss said banishing 50-over cricket from the domestic schedule could have dire consequences for the team's 2011 World Cup campaign.

England and Wales Cricket Board last week voted to switch to 40-over game but Strauss, who believes one-dayers will survive the mounting pressure from Twenty20, said domestic cricket should mirror internationals.

"Forty-over cricket is not radically different from 50-over cricket, but it just seems sensible to me that if you're playing 50-over cricket internationally and your domestic scene is a way of preparing people for international cricket, you should be playing the same game," Strauss said.

"At the moment there is a future to 50-over cricket. There are no plans that I've heard of to get rid of it. My personal view is that domestic cricket should mirror international cricket, so in that respect playing 40-over cricket is not ideal," he was quoted as saying by 'Sydney Morning Herald'.

The International Cricket Council has already scheduled a further two one-day World Cups, in 2011 in the Indian subcontinent and 2015 in Australia.