'Rules Are Terrible' - Former England All-Rounder Moeen Ali Explains Why ODI is Worst Format to Play in Cricket

Former England cricketer Moeen Ali has explained why One Day International (ODI) is the worst formats to play in cricket, saying that the 50-over-game has "completely died outside of ICC Cricket World Cup and the Champions Trophy" due to rule changes.

As the debate on the ODI format grows with the advent of the shorter formats and England's recent failure in the 50-over game, Moeen Ali also weighed in on the matter during a chat on Talksport Cricket.

England has not had the best time in ODIs since their 2019 World Cup triump, having massively fumbled on their ICC Cricket World Cup title defence in India back in 2023 with just three wins in nine matches followed by the winless campaign in the Champions Trophy 2025.

"The format has almost completely died out, apart from World Cups and Champions Trophy. It is the worst format to play and I think there are many reasons for that," Moeen said on TalkSport Cricket as quoted by Wisden.

The 37-year-old, who represented England in 138 ODIs, scoring 2,355 runs, picking 111 wickets and winning one World Cup in 2019, added that the rule to have one extra fielder inside the circle after the powerplay has been "horrendous" as it is not easy to build pressure on batters because of that.

"I think the rules are terrible. To have that extra fielder in after the first powerplay, I think it is a horrendous rule for taking wickets, building any sort of pressure. Guys are averaging 60, 70 in ODI cricket now because of that," added Moeen.

"When you're bowling at somebody and you put a little bit of pressure, he just reverse-sweeps and it is not even a single, it is a four. It is just there's always that option available for the batters [to score]."

Moeen also said that the usage of two balls from both ends in ODI cricket, a rule also introduced in early 2010s, has eliminated the reverse swing from the game, handing batters an advantage.

"On top of all this, you have two new balls, you lose the reverse swing, you lose the art of trying to hit a softer ball. Everything is always in the middle and crisp and it is flying off your bat and stuff. I think for those reasons, the cricket's just died. 50-over cricket has died," Moeen continued.

The former all-rounder also said that the franchise cricket worldwide and the money involved in it is also "eating up" ODIs and that will see many players retire from international cricket.

"The problem is the money that's out there and the money that's being thrown out there. It's so much that people just cannot turn it down. It is very difficult. There are guys who are probably going to retire in the next couple of years from international cricket earlier to play franchise cricket," Moeen said.

Moeen Ali, who retired from international cricket last year, will continue playing franchise cricket in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season with defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).