Twenty-Twenty Cricket: Thinking Differently

Cricket has seen a lot of changes since the first test match between England and Australia back in 1877. The introduction of one day cricket, coloured clothing and white balls, the commercialisation of the game with the involvement of Kerry Packer and lots more. The recent change to hit the world of cricket was the introduction of the "Twenty Twenty Cricket" popularly referred to as "T20 Cricket". Here the teams are allowed to play for a maximum of 20 overs per side and instead of playing the whole day, the match takes a maximum of three hours to complete.This gives the spectators an enthralling contest in a very short span of time where all the players are right on there toes. No one has to wait the whole day to get the result as opposed to the one day or test matches where we have to wait for a full day and five days respectively.

Superficially the whole concept looks exciting and very entertaining. However if we delve in deep, there is a lot more to it. Now a days there is a lot of money at stake in cricket matches and obviously, it seems the administrators of the game are driven by the profit motives of these conglomerates who bring in the moolah. In this scenario it is a win-win situation for all except for the game. One can become a star by playing an extraordinarily explosive innings on a given day but that does not prove that he is a quality player with a lot of skills and temperament. The real class of a player comes out in a test match or in ODIs where the ability to guide the team to victory amidst great adversities, is tested to the core. The whole game of "T20 Cricket" is designed in such a way that the bowler cuts a sorry figure more often than not. He looks like a lamb served on a platter for the wild dogs. However to be called as the lions of the game, one has to excel in the longer version of the game as that is the real test of a cricket player.

The bottomline is, there is so much money at stake in the shortest version of the game that everyone is inclined towards it. But, ask the contemporaries, nine out of ten would say that their heart lies in test cricket.

Long live the game!!!