Trescothick comes down heavy on England’s domestic 50-over structure

After a relatively inexperienced English unit was downed by West Indies 2-1, handing them their third series loss since the end of the ODI World Cup 2023, their coach on the West Indies tour, Marcus Trescothick, came down heavily on the domestic 50-over set-up which is not giving premier English players a taste of 50-over cricket. 

"You're not getting the volume of games that players would like to get and build an understanding of the game,” Trescothick said at the end of the third game of the series in Bridgetown, Barbados. 

Saying that ‘everyone knows why it is like that’, the coach of the team on this tour said that they did not want to name any other competition as the reason behind top players not playing enough ODIs. 

"I'm not going to speak against any other competition. But of course, we'd want more 50-over cricket somehow. How do we do that? That's not up to me to try and work out,” said the 48-year-old. 

Since the arrival of The Hundred, the One-Day Trophy, England's premier 50-over tournament, has been sidelined as it collides with the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) most ambitious project. Thus, most of the top players, especially those chosen for England’s ODI team, don’t get to play in it.  

"We know how important Test cricket is in England and having the domestic T20 competition and the Hundred, that's vitally important to our game. How do we get that balance right? That's for the powers above to look at, but it's not going to be easy,” Trescothick remarked. 

Agreeing with the fact that there are not a lot of opportunities to play 50-over cricket, the former England player said that the challenge would have to be taken head-on by the team and the players. 

"There's not a massive amount to play back at home, and most of the white-ball cricket played now around the world is T20,” he said. 

England's next play an ODI series will be against India in India in February 2025. 

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