The First-Ever ODI — Australia vs England, MCG, 5 January 1971

Limited-overs cricket already existed in domestic English cricket — the Gillette Cup since 1963, the John Player Sunday League since 1969 — and had been a financial success at a time when first-class crowds were declining. International cricket, however, remained exclusively a Test match enterprise. The idea of a televised one-day international between national sides existed mostly in the imagination of journalists and a small number of administrators, including Bradman and the New South Wales-based promoter Bob Parish.

The 1970-71 Ashes was a long, ill-tempered tour. Ray Illingworth's England side had come close to a series-defining win in the rain-affected second Test at Perth, and the prospect of an entirely lost Melbourne Test threatened to deflate both the schedule and the gate. The decision to insert a limited-overs exhibition was therefore commercial as much as innovative, and the choice of 40 eight-ball overs reflected the desire to fill an afternoon of cricket rather than introduce a permanent format.

The third Test had been due to start on New Year's Eve, but rain at the MCG was severe and continuous through the first three days. By the morning of 4 January 1971, with the pitch unplayable and forecasts grim, the captains and managers met to discuss a salvage option. Bradman, in attendance, supported the limited-overs proposal. England's senior players — including Boycott — were reluctant, viewing the fixture as a meaningless exhibition; Illingworth pushed for it as something the touring party owed the Melbourne crowd.

Australian players, less encumbered by the dignity of the Test arena and with more recent experience of the Australian state limited-overs cup, were generally more enthusiastic. The MCG groundstaff prepared a reserved central strip overnight, and the match was confirmed at the captains' toss on the morning of 5 January in front of a crowd that had assembled in expectation of conventional Test cricket and remained for what they were given.

The 1970-71 Ashes had reached its third Test at Melbourne over the New Year, but rain wiped out the first three scheduled days entirely. Faced with a packed Boxing Day-period crowd, refunded tickets, and a long blank stretch in the schedule, Australian Board chairman Sir Don Bradman and the visiting MCC tour party agreed to use the remaining days to stage a one-off limited-overs exhibition. The match was set at 40 eight-ball overs a side — the format then in use for the English domestic Sunday League adapted to Australian conditions.

England batted first and were dismissed for 190 in 39.4 overs. John Edrich made 82, the first ODI half-century, and Geoff Boycott contributed a watchful 8 from 37 balls in a foretaste of the strike-rate debates that would shadow him through the next decade. Australia chased the runs in the 35th over, Ian Chappell making 60 and Doug Walters 41, and won by five wickets. Wisden devoted only a brief paragraph to the match in its retrospective and did not at the time treat it as the birth of a format.

“We have given the people something to look at. That is what they came for.”

“It was an exhibition. We did not regard it as a Test match and nor should anyone else.”

Bradman and the Australian Board, encouraged by the gate, immediately commissioned planning for further one-day internationals. The first ODI series proper would not follow until later in the decade, but the format was institutionalised quickly: by the time the inaugural World Cup was staged in England in 1975, ODIs were a regular and well-understood part of the international calendar. Cricket administrators had stumbled into a format that would, within fifteen years, generate more revenue and television audience than Test cricket.

The fixture's status as the first ODI was not officially confirmed until the ICC's 1972 ratification, by which point the boundaries of the format — overs per side, balls per over, fielding restrictions — were already evolving. The MCG match's eight-ball overs and absence of fielding circles mean that in mechanical terms it differs from the modern ODI; in spirit and in record, however, it is the first.