twenty20 is here to stay...

but more importantly, india actually won!!!! how incredible is that??? i missed most of the games as i was in new zealand, but i did make sure that we had pay tv in our motel room for the final.

it is difficult to believe that this team that is bowling and fielding so well is in fact india. and the batting was so mature in difficult circumstances. i wonder how much of this success will be carried forward to odi's and tests in the coming months. certainly this newfound depth in bowling will be tested in longer games. the batting still concerns me, as far as test cricket is concerned. i really hope sehwag finds himself back in the test team, because all of india's test success from 2001-2004 was based on sehwag's destructive innings opening the batting. despite popular opinion that he is a specialist limited overs batsman, i actually think india would be best served by keeping sehwag for tests exclusively- he has previously thrived in an environment where there are no limitations placed on him. he has proven repeatedly that he is not a good chaser- even in 2nd innings of test matches he has not performed well. what he really excels at is setting big totals. anyway, we'll see what happens over the next few months.

but back to the world cup- it turned out to be an incredible success. i initially voiced my doubts about the format and stated that i didnt really like the type of cricket played. but i have to admit, i've changed my mind. first of all, like i said before, the potential of twenty20 to become a spectator sport easily surpasses anything cricket has ever offered before. never before have such large and energetic crowds been seen at south african stadiums. and this is only the beginning- it seems that twenty20 has all the ingredients to become a real global force. but all this was predicted before the tournament. what was completely unexpected was the quality of cricket...

the tournament opener, thankfully, proved to be a one-off. most of the serious matches were extremely close affairs and there were enough upsets to keep people guessing. most importantly, it was not a tournament dominated by big-hitting batsmen as most expected. bowlers played a key role and fittingly the finalists were teams that picked five specialist bowlers throughout the tournament. the impact of bowlers was clearly evident in the matchwinning statistics of daniel vettori, rp singh, umar gul and shahid afridi. it was sreesanth's destructive spell against australia that decided that semi-final, and the same goes for irfan pathan in the final, vettori against india, afridi against sri lanka and so on. there was a comment made by david lloyd towards the end of the tied india-pak match which i think holds the key to the future of twenty20: he said something along the lines of "if we play these matches on pitches that provide real assistance to bowlers, then it is possible to produce close, tightly contested matches that provide a real spectacle as opposed to mindless slogging". i think playing the tournament in south africa was extremely fortuitous because it clearly demonstrated that twenty20 will be a success due to bowling not batting. three decades of odi's have ensured that everyone can slog to some degree- six after six is not that exciting (sorry yuvraj) if thats all that happens for three hours like that south africa- west indies match. what is much more exciting is the intelligent, tactful batting of players like gambhir and misbah who sum up the situation and play accordingly.

anyway, i am now a convert. under the right conditions, twenty20 can produce really good cricket and contrary to initial expectations, there is more incentive to picking five bowlers (with one or two bowling "all-rounders" like pathan, afridi) than there is in tests or odi's. the challenge for other countries will be to produce wickets that are bowler friendly and produce more tight contests.....

new zealand

i just got back from a short holiday in new zealand, and i must say, it is so much better than what all the tourism ads claim. those things do no justice to the supreme beauty and grandeur of new zealand.

we spent ten days driving around the southern parts of the south island including 2 days of skiiing, which if you havent done is a must-do activity. the major places we went to were mt.cook, milford sound and the glaciers, but travelling in new zealand is much more about the bits in between; the little tracks and unsealed roads that lead to stunning gorges, dazzling waterfalls and dizzy peaks, the sound of birdsong and bleating lambs, the lush farmland and dense forests and the thousands of rivers that criss-cross the land.

there's lots of photos to come- i havent uploaded them as i havent looked thru them yet. but soon....i still have over a week of leave. the worst thing about holidays is the intense feeling of withdrawal one gets after returning home...

Twenty20 has arrived

32 years ago, one-day cricket claimed its place in the cricket world with the inaugural world cup. now, twenty20 is staking its claim with the launch 0f the twenty20 world cup. gideon haigh, one of the best cricket journalists going around has written a fantastic article on the evolution of cricket (highly recommended for all cricket enthusiasts) and various variations on the main theme that have flopped disastrously.

anyway, ever since twenty20 took off in english county cricket in the 2003 northern summer, i've been trying to work out exactly how i feel about it. and i must say, its not as simple as i initially thought.

from the handful of matches i've seen, i dont really like the gameplay. there's very little tactics involved- most of the innovations are defensive i.e. how to concede less runs. as far as the batting goes, its quite similar to the final 10-15 overs in odi's (improvisation, slogging etc). the thing i really dont like about it is that inferior batsman can shine (because the game doesnt last long enough for their defeciencies to show) and quality bowlers are not adequately rewarded. so, it doesnt really add anything new to the game the way odi's brought a new dimension to cricket and cricketers three decades ago, and it dilutes the finer technical aspects of the game.


BUT, thats only one side of the argument. twenty20 was the product of about ten years of experimentation by the ecb to come up with a product (yes, product....thats what it is nowadays) that would be competitive with soccer in england. by necessity, the game would have to be short, thrilling, have lots of fast changes of momentum and be palatable and understandable to a broad range of people. and i have to admit, somewhat grudgingly, that twenty20 delivers all those things. it has attracted plenty of people who would never consider going to watch a full day's worth of cricket. and its very television friendly...

i think the conclusion is that twenty20 is here to stay, even though more serious fans are never going to fully embrace it. on the whole, it probably is a good thing for cricket in terms of exposure and developing the game outside of its traditional bastions...