By Oliver Brett

Australia's VB Series has suffered tumbling TV audience figures

As they sit down to ponder the future of one-day internationals, the cumbersomely entitled International Cricket Council cricket committee should consider the following.

Instead of trying to iron out certain aspects of the 50-over format that are troubling them at present, why not go the whole hog and adopt Twenty20 cricket instead?

Sunil Gavaskar - who famously attempted to bat out for a draw in India's first World Cup match in 1975 - finds 50-over internationals "predictable".

He heads the committee which is looking at tinkering around with the status quo.

Among the proposals being studied is the removal of the statutory 15-overs of fielding restrictions at the start of each innings.

Instead, the batting side would elect three different five-over slots when the fielding side would be forced to have just two boundary fielders.

Nice idea, but one suspects teams would end up deciding on a formula that works best for them and stick with it.

Thus the innovation would only be any fun for the first few months of the new format.

Now onto Gavaskar's second idea - and this seems slightly banal.

Using American jargon, the ICC is looking at a "double-play" where a striking batsman could be out caught or lbw and his non-striking partner run out off the same ball.

Brad Hodge - Leicestershire's Aussie Twenty20 star batsman

It is hard to imagine this actually applying very often, particularly as non-strikers are always wary that they can be run out should a catch not be taken or an lbw not given.

So if we really are all bored to tears with one-day internationals - Gavaskar presumably did not see the tied match on Wednesday between England and South Africa in Bloemfontein - then the way forward is Twenty20 cricket.

This way, a seven-match series between two teams could be crammed into about 12 days, thus making tours a lot shorter.

After all, who needs rest days when each match lasts barely three hours?

You could even play two matches on one day at the same venue - the second under floodlights - a bit like finals day in the current English domestic version of Twenty20.

Twenty20 has had its detractors. The most recent of them, legendary Windies paceman Michael Holding, said: "It saddens me to hear people say that it is a real contest between bat and ball.

"How can simple slogging be good cricket?"

But cricket will always have its purest, most unadulterated form - and that comes through Test matches.

One-day cricket was always the diversion, the crowd-pleaser, the slightly sexier version.

After 30 years it has lost some of its appeal, which makes its younger cousin Twenty20 the only obvious successor.

When it began during a run of glorious summer evenings throughout England and Wales in June 2003, Twenty20 proved an instant hit.