Where now for world cricket? Will Indian fans - the most influential cricketing audience simply because of their sheer numbers - sated by a heady Indian Premier League (IPL) fare be happy to settle for a traditional 50-overs game between India and Hong Kong at the Asia Cup this month? 'They will need this like a hole in the head,' says respected Indian cricket commentator Dileep Premachandran. 'After watching [Glenn] McGrath against [Sanath] Jayasuriya and [Shane] Warne against Ganguly, why would anyone settle for such mediocrity?' This is one of the arguments raging over the future of the one-day international game as the IPL came to a stunning end last Sunday when the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals, the franchise which was auctioned for the least (US$67 million), scampered to a last-ball victory over the Chennai Super Kings at a packed stadium in Mumbai. The heady cocktail of money, showbiz entertainment and a fast-paced game dished out over the past six weeks in the IPL Twenty20 by the eight franchises has led to intense speculation that the days of the One-Day International (ODI) could be numbered. Premachandran, an associate editor with Cricinfo website, is singularly unimpressed as he points out at what is on offer for the armchair Indian fan this month - a tri-series in Bangladesh followed by the Asia Cup which involves Hong Kong. 'It's the classic champagne-followed-by-the-flat-beer scenario, and it will be interesting to see what the TV ratings are like. Unless one-day cricket can reinvent itself, it has one foot in the grave,' Premachandran said. The TV marketeer behind the IPL success, Seamus O'Brien - a former Hong Kong Cricket Club batsman - does not want to predict what the future holds for the 50-over game. 'I don't know if the fans will come out and watch the one-day game and if it has a place in world cricket in the future,' said the Singapore-based O'Brien, president of World Sports Group, which together with Sony Television, hold the US$1 billion IPL TV rights for 10 years. 'But what I definitely know is that the Twenty20 format is here to stay. This is because prime-time TV ratings for the IPL have gone through the roof.' The Economic Times of India revealed that the 44-day, 59-match IPL drew more than 200 million Indian television viewers, 10 million international viewers - including Hong Kong - and four million live spectators day after day. It concluded the mix of viewership, advertising revenue, ticket sales and thrilling cricket made the IPL a resounding success. O'Brien happily agrees. 'The league was just amazing. The atmosphere has been unbelievable and the whole nation was captivated by it. The final was just Roy of the Rovers comic book stuff.' The IPL has undoubtedly revolutionised the game. But it is now over, at least until next year. So while Indian fans grapple with withdrawal symptoms, what does the future hold? According to O'Brien, the biggest dividend the IPL has provided the game's administrators is that it has shown them the way forward, and what needs to be done to make cricket a truly global pursuit. 'Twenty20 can turn cricket into a global game. It is a game where everybody can be competitive. I see no reason why a Hong Kong or a Singapore cannot be moderately successful in this form of the game,' O'Brien says. He has a point. A batsman does not need to occupy the crease for hours or a bowler does not need to have the discipline and stamina to bowl the extended spells needed in test cricket. In this version of instant gratification, a team only has 120 balls to come up with a reasonable score and each bowler can only send down a maximum of four overs. 'The game's administrators have an unprecedented opportunity to take the game global with Twenty20. Over 20 overs, everyone can be competitive. It is also easy to understand from a consumer's point of view and lasts just three hours,' O'Brien said. 'Skills are truncated. When the 50-over game first burst on to the scene, everyone thought it was the end of test cricket. But what it did was to enhance a player's skills. It is the same with Twenty20,' said O'Brien, who once considered himself a purist. But is there room for the 50-over game, caught in-between test cricket and Twenty20? If test cricket is for the purists and Twenty20 for the masses, who will come to watch the ODIs? Maybe what really matters in the end is not what version is being played, but who plays it. If you get more Warnes and more Tendulkars playing ODIs, the fans will surely follow? 'Even looking into a crystal ball, it is too hard to predict. But Twenty20 has brought about a profound change,' said O'Brien. What the crystal ball has shown is that the IPL will get bigger and better in the future. If football has the EPL (English Premier League) and basketball has the NBA, then cricket deserves the IPL, according to O'Brien. 'The quality players in any sport go where the money is. You get this in English football or the NBA in the States. Similarly the US PGA golf tour is the biggest in the world. In cricket, the highest salaries are being paid in the IPL because of the country's strong cricketing economy,' O'Brien said. 'Very soon, you will have Twenty20 leagues all around the world, but the biggest will be the IPL. The success of this year's event will make it a done deal.' Bowling them over The IPL's Twenty20 format has proved hugely popular with fans The number of international viewers (in millions) who watched the 59-match tournament: 10