WITH 500 days to go until the 2019 one-day international World Cup, it’s worth re-evaluating where the format sits in the national consciousness.

For purists, the 50-over game is what is has always been: Tactical, fast-paced and potentially thrilling.

The only problem is the 20-over version is a hyped-up edition of all these qualities and more. And it’s seen the BBL steal the thunder from ODIs this summer.

Consider the raw data for a start.

On Friday night, 44,000 fans packed into Etihad Stadium to watch the Melbourne Stars win their first game of the summer against a weakened Renegades outfit.

Two days later — at a stadium which fans generally prefer from a viewing perspective — a tick over 37,000 punters effectively sat wherever they wanted at the MCG for the first Australia-England ODI.

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This trend is consistent over a sizeable period of time now.

But it does not align with the television numbers, which still favour the longer white ball game by almost double, according to stats taken from Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night’s cricket.

An average of 1.1 million people tuned in to Sunday’s ODI and, according to Media Week, it was the highest-rating ODI in two years, while 661,000 was the average for Friday’s BBL match.

It would appear Big Bash cricket is appealing to families and casual cricket observers more than one-day international matches and, anecdotally, the buzz surrounding BBL far outweighs the lukewarm feeling leading into an Australia v England limited overs series.

With so much cricket on and so little context, fans could be forgiven for not knowing where to look, how to watch and what’s coming up next. Not to mention who won the game three nights ago.

But based on the aforementioned television numbers, people are still tuning in. Nobody is boycotting one-day cricket, despite stadiums being emptier than they ever have been. Instead, they are watching on their newsfeeds and listening online. Luckily for CA, the vast proportion of its annual income comes from broadcast rights and not gate receipts.

This is the 21st century and these are 21st century trends.

In saying this, the two formats are trying to coexist in the same crowded landscape that also houses Australian Open tennis, A-League, W-League, NBL and an engrossing end to the WNBL season. Plus several overseas sports which captivate millions of Australians on a daily basis.

For years, CA managed a two-tiered system of international cricket that ran concurrently with a busy and competitive domestic system. Nowadays, it’s a three-tiered system when you add in the BBL franchises. Shield cricket is meant to produce the next generation of Steve Smiths, but when the sun is at its hottest, the format goes into hibernation for two months.

The Big Bash has the pizzazz, money and marketability to grow the game. Test cricket is prestigious and, according to James Sutherland, almost untouchable. It can be tampered with (think pink balls and four-day Tests), but it will not be allowed to die in the country if Sutherland has anything to do with it. That’s a good thing.

The truth is ODI cricket is going OK, but just not in traditional areas. People don’t need to go and watch the game to have an interest. January is increasingly becoming BBL’s month. And much like its poor cousin — the JLT one-day series — CA could do worse than schedule all ODIs for October and early November. This is not possible if the ICC schedules a block of limited overs cricket between two countries for January, so it would require CA to get on the front foot — naturally — and request January off.

The stat that’s been thrown around since Jason Roy carved the Aussies to all parts of the MCG on Sunday night is that Australia has lost seven of its past eight completed ODIs.

Worrying? Maybe. But an accurate reflection of where the national limited overs team is at? Not really.

Only true cricket geeks would recall the scores and patterns of five ODIs played in India throughout September and two completed T20s in October. Also, in 2017, there was a Champions Trophy tournament where the Aussies completed one game out of three due to poor weather and left the UK without much fanfare either way. Very few Australians either knew or cared it was on.

“It’s hard to get right behind the ODI cricket because the scheduling doesn’t allow you to get right behind it like we used to,” former Australian cricketer Brett Geeves said on the Fox Cricket Podcast.

“Hopefully something pops up down the road and worldwide administrators can make it relevant again.”

Geeves also suggested a left-field reason as to why ODI cricket has dropped off the national consciousness (and also our television screens).

“We had a meeting with the ACA and it was largely around the demise of one-day international and domestic attendances,” he said of a players discussion more than 10 years ago.

“It was around 2003 and 2004 that we started to see a real decline in these numbers. To me, it kind of seemed that it was in line with no full-strength beer being sold in venues. It was dead on alignment.

“Whenever full-strength beer was no longer served at international and domestic fixtures, the crowds completely dropped off. To me, I’m a dot-joiner.”

One day crowds have been down ever since full strength beer stopped being served at Australian venues. Source: AAP

Beers aside, next summer presents a completely different conundrum.

The ICC future tours schedule (FTS) dictates that five ODIs will be played between Australia and South Africa before December’s four-Test series against India.

Then, instead of transitioning straight into more one-dayers in January with a backdrop of BBL, Sri Lanka will play two Tests on these shores — one in Brisbane and one likely in Canberra — before playing three context-less ODIs to complete the Aussie summer.

Having lost 22 of its past 48 ODIs, Australia is barely working at a 50-50 ratio since the 2015 World Cup. Ranked fourth in the world behind India, England and New Zealand, it has just over a year to sort itself out before its title defence begins in the UK.

At least English grounds will have no hesitation serving full-strength alcohol to thirsty cricket fans.