One Day International (ODI) cricket completed 51 years on January 5. The first ODI was played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on January 5, 1971.

If the T20 format of cricket was born out of the commercial interest, ODI came into existence because of rains. Yes, the first ODI match was meant to be the third Ashes Test that year. However, the rain had forced the organisers to hold a limited overs match to compensate the spectators at the venue.

Till now, the cricketing world has witnessed 4,388 ODIs. The countries such as India, Australia and Pakistan, who have played more than 900 ODIs in the past 51 years, are leading the table.

24 years for 1000th ODI

It took almost 24 years for the cricket fans to witness the 1000th ODI. The match between England and West Indies in Nottingham in May 1995 was the 1000th ODI in the cricketing history.

The 2000th ODI was played eight years after that in April 2003. The 3000th and 4000th ODIs were recorded in June 2010 and March 2018, respectively.

While the initial decade of 1970s witnessed only 82 ODIs, the second decade of 1980s saw the number going up to 516. Interestingly, this was the decade when India won its first Cricket World Cup in 1983.

After playing 933 ODIs in 1990s, the cricketing world recorded an all-time high of 1405 ODIs from 2000 to 2009. The decade between 2010 and 2019 witnessed 1287 ODIs.

Cricket fans witnessed 115 ODIs in the post-Covid world during 2020 and 2021.

Tie ODIs

Of the 4,388 ODIs played in the last 51 years, 153 matches did not yield any result and 39 ended up in a tie.

Interestingly, the ground in Sharjah has emerged as topper when it comes to the number of matches played. Till now, Sharjah has witnessed 240 matches. This is followed by Dhaka with 171 matches. While Harare and Sydney witnessed 159 matches each, Melbourne witnessed 149 ODIs till now.

Related Topics