Twenty Twenty : It's not Cricket

Published on July 19, 2004 By Confusing Musings In Sports & Leisure

Twenty-twenty cricket is a new fad which is catching up in English counties these days. Actually, it was there last year as well. It drew large crowds and supposedly generated a lot excitement during the matches. It is said to be the next generation cricket after Tests and LOI.

Now we hear that Australia and India(read Dalmiya) have also taken notice. Both of them are planning to introduce this new format in there forthcoming domestic season. Australia, infact has agreed to play a Twenty -Twenty match during their next Ashes encounter with England.

English county season has begun and I saw a Twenty-Twenty match. I had seen a few of them last year as well. I found them really ridiculous. Every batsmen starts whacking from the very first ball , tracks are laid hopelessly flat and bowlers cut a sorry picture. Already they say LOI is a batsman's game while bowlers are getting a raw deal. Still , many a bowlers have improved, enhanced their skills, brought innovations, used there minds like never before and kept themselves in reckoning. Twenty-Twenty will be the last nail in their coffin.

Consider what cricket gonna lose -

-There will hardly any centuries for batsmen or 5 wicket hauls for bowlers. Only silly records like fastest 50 or 25 would be left to harp about. But even a fastest 50 has numerical limitation. You can't have it faster than 9 balls . What next?

-Wristy players would be history. What will happen of artists like Laxman, Dravid, Vaughan, Martyns etc ? They will try adapt but as a result would be neither here nor there.

-Beautiful sights like (Laxman's) cover drive , (Tendulkar's) straight drive , on drive , (Ranjit Singh's) leg glances, (Inzy's)punches would be gone. Every shot will be replaced by it's lofted counterpart.

-A bowler would be taken in a team on his batting abilities . Bowlers would try to bowl only yorker, slower ball or that limited bouncer. Emphasis would not be on taking wicket but on containment because 20 overs are too less to bowl a team out. Forget those outswingers, clean bowling thru the gate or doosras on flat pitches.

I beg to ask, why not play Baseball instead? These guys will kill Cricket. To tell you what, after watching memorable India-Aus 2000 Test series , India-Aus 2003-04 Test series and India-Pak 2004 Test series, I have become a big fan of Test Matches. They are the REAL thing, the real test of a player's ability, strength. It's a treat to watch. My interest in LOI is waning lately and to top that, we have this 20-20.

Mr Dalmiya, don't always think about the monetary gains. It's time to save the game.

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