Bah! One Day Cricket!

With the tests on both sides of the Tasman concluding faster than the Australian Open men's final on Saturday, it means that we have now entered the part of the season where limited overs cricket is centre-stage - in fact for much of next month, we will witness either Twenty20 or 50 over cricket only on both sides of the Tasman.

Of course, due to the early finish to the tests, we will have to wait till Friday to see if young Auckland all-rounder Michael Bates rates as an international star - something that is a bit tricky to judge given who they're playing.

Bates along with his Auckland teammates, Ronnie Hira and Colin de Grandhomme have been selected to feature against Zimbabwe - Hira and de Grandhomme will only feature in the Twenty20s unlike Bates who will feature in both Twenty20s and one dayers.

However, of course if you are that impatient for your fix of high-quality Bates, part 1 of Downton Abbey's critically acclaimed Christmas special airs on Wednesday night on Prime at 8:30pm. Is Mr Bates guilty or innocent of killing his ex-wife? Will Anna actually be able to see much of his newly-wed husband? Time to set the MySky to record that and then Crowd Goes Wild.

I'm doing this pitch for Prime after claiming on twitter that Alistair Wilkinson was lying when he said he does the news with his pants on.

Anyway enough of the American TV-like ad pitch, back to whining about why-the-heck the Australians have brought back the much-maligned triangular series for the 50 overs games.

Australia had originally ditched the format that started as Kerry Packer's World Series of Cricket in the late 1970s featuring the West Indies and England, after India whitewashed them 2-0 in the last Finals series in 2008. In fact, they were the last country to employ this format after England and India had ditched this years before - going with 5-game series.

Ok, maybe Cricket Australia officials think they'll get bigger crowds for India v Sri Lanka games this time around given the huge migrant populations from each country at present. But still, it just means 3 more meaningless games to what can be termed as quite a meaningless competition in comparison to the test series.

And so what if Sri Lanka made the Finals series. Would it be considered a big achievement for them compared to their 1996 World Cup win?

50 over cricket is becoming more and more like the ugly duckling of cricket compared to the likes of Twenty20 and test cricket. It is neither here nor there and had its heyday back in the 1980s. It's saving grace is the fact the current Cricket World Cup is based on the 50 over format.

But outside the World Cup, people don't really care despite the many changes the ICC have made to the game in recent times to make more exciting that killer mid-stage between the 20th and 35th overs which has put most people to bed at times.

Nevertheless, it is a bit of a nice step-up from Twenty20 to test cricket - although is it really necessary given how well David Warner and Mitchell Starc have moved seemlessly between the Big Bash and the tests? It is also a bit of a money-spinner having people stay at the ground for 8 hours compared to the 3 for a Twenty20.

But you just wonder how long 50 over cricket will last given Twenty20 cricket is now clearly the duck that lays the golden egg for the global game of cricket and given test cricket's sanctity in the eyes of true cricket fans.

For the record, Australia's Commonwealth Bank Series will start next week after the Twenty20s against India and will feature India and Sri Lanka with the finals to be played in early March just before football season starts. New Zealand play Zimbabwe in a Twenty20 and 3 one dayers before taking on the mighty South Africans in 3 Twenty20s and 5 one dayers prior to a 3 test series starting in March.

It will be South Africa's first cricket tour of New Zealand since 2004 - crickey, that was my first real cricket series, remember Chris Cairns smashing that 6 into the top of the Railway Stand at what turned out to be Carisbrook's last ever international match to win the game for New Zealand.

Surely South Africa must be the number 1 side in the world after they won their series against Sri Lanka while the English got smoked by the Pakistanis in the Emirates.