Twenty20's 5 Reasons To Be Cheerful
By Dave Tickner
This year's big World Cup in the Caribbean was not a success, lurching from crisis to tragedy to farce over a punishing seven weeks.
But the World Cup's little brother looks to have rather better prospects for success. Here are five reasons why...
1. Brevity
Brevity, of course, is the soul of wit. And while the World Cup shambled witlessly on for what seemed like millennia but was in fact a mere seven weeks, the World Twenty20 is put to bed within a fortnight. It's the cricketing equivalent of a one-liner.
Even the most ardent cricket fan was sick of the World Cup long before its fittingly inept conclusion in the Barbados gloom, but there's little danger of that happening here.
With three games a day packed in at just three venues, this should be a tournament that leaves the punters wanting more.
2. Unpredictability
Australia tried their very best to create some doubt around the World Cup by turning briefly into England during the build-up, but it was pretty clear with well over a month to go who was going to triumph as the Green and Gold machine found their form once the real business got under way.
But while the Aussies are clear favourites in this tournament, the nature of Twenty20 means nothing can be taken for granted.
They might even lose to England in the group stages.
With only 16 international Twenty20 matches played before this event, no team has yet been able to display the dominance that the Aussies have exerted for the last decade in Test and 50-over cricket. Indeed, no country to have played more than one Twenty20 game is unbeaten.
This event really is anyone's. Except Scotland's.
3. Excitement
Twenty20 is often described as 50-over cricket with the dull middle overs taken out.
There's plenty of truth in that, with growing evidence that the 20-over game is influencing 50-over cricket the way that game changed Tests.
Witness England's batting in the recent ODI against India at The Oval. Even with five wickets down England started their charge 19 overs out, adding a Twenty20-esque 179 runs in the final 114 deliveries.
The fact they still lost only further highlights the change in thinking in one-day cricket these days.
But that's only half the story; that Oval clash was a classic, India clinching victory with just two wickets and deliveries in hand. But in 50-over cricket, that's very much the exception rather than the rule, with one-sided clear-cut victories the norm.
By compressing the game over a shorter period, Twenty20 throws up fewer one-sided games; there generally isn't time for one side to establish total control.
In the 16 games to date, there has already been a tie, with another two games settled by just two runs.
And even the few one-sided games are still entertaining; I'll take England beating Australia by 100 runs over any 50-over match every time.
4. New Faces
The 2007 World Cup not only threw up a predictable winner, but also predictable stars.
Leading runscorers? Hayden, Jayawardene and Ponting, with Kallis, Jayasuriya and Gilchrist among the top 10.
Leading wicket-takers? McGrath and Muralitharan, with Bracken, Vettori and Flintoff all there or thereabouts. The likes of Tait and Malinga did go some way to breaking the monotony, but it was still a tournament dominated by the old guard.
But this tournament should propel some new boys to star status. The likes of Luke Wright of England, or Albie Morkel of South Africa and almost the entire India squad are virtually unknown outside their own countries; in a couple of weeks they could be household names.
5. Atmosphere
While a combination of outrageous ticket prices and a tournament-wide clampdown on fun and enjoyment in any form left many World Cup matches played in front of half-full funereal stadia, the organising committee here will surely not make the same mistakes.
Many matches were sold out within a week of tickets going on sale and, while the umpires have been told not to sex up their signals as they have in domestic Twenty20 cricket, the feeling is that spectators will be encouraged to enjoy themselves at the games.
It's a crazy scheme, but it might just work.
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