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...