Why Twenty20 needs other forms of cricket

For the time being let us assume that cricket as a game is played only in the Twenty20 version and that there is no Test cricket or ODI (which is very much possible going by Chris Gayle's words). Even though it is too early to judge, the predictable patterns emerging from the world of Twenty20 is that there are no champion cricketers in Twenty20. Every tournament, every match has its own heroes. Twenty20 most probably is not going to throw up a hero for a decade or even five years, forget about a Pele or Maradona or Bradman or Sachin. I am not sure whether a Sporting game can sustain in the long run without the so-called "Legends".

My understanding is that legendary players play an equal role in the growth and sustainability of the game as the attractiveness of the game itself. How many of us can imagine Brazilian soccer without Pele? I am almost sure that eighty percent of school cricketers in India in 1990s dreamt about becoming "a Sachin Tendulkar" rather than "a batsman". If Twenty20 does not produce its legends who perform consistently over a period of time, can it sustain the public imagination across generations? Is Twenty20 capable of producing its legends without the existence of other forms of cricket? I will not say no, but I am pessimistic, because, let me quote "it is easier to play at your top level for three hours" and hence a lesser-skilled is almost equally rewarded as a highly-skilled.

My theory is that as much as cricket needs Twenty20 for its growth, Twenty20 may need Test cricket for its survival. As a game, T20 needs champions and Test cricket is the source where it can hope to get get champions from. In future, Twenty20 may become the basis for entry into cricket, and whoever does well in Twenty20 may have to adapt themselves to become consistent Test Players (I seriously doubt if it is going to happen the other way, which is bad news for the Rahul Dravids of the cricket world). Test cricket, then, is going to produce champion players and teams, and whose failure we are going to celebrate as "upsets" or "surprises".

what you said i don't here is the thing T20 cricket attracts people in ground and Test matches are so boring these days why coz their is no audience except England and Australia reamaing world's ground are literaly empty so who is gonna invest in test cricket if we don't make some good changes in test cricket like (Day night test and others) test cricket is gonna die and i am afraid that you said 20 is gonna need test too that is totally wrong i think with in next five years its gonna spread in world and gonna be more famous.

Eventhough there had been two WCs in T20I, it is not yet played seriously in bilateral series (at most one or two matches). As soon as T20Is get more importance and its number per series starts ranging between 3 and 5, players will start playing it more seriously. Then we will have champions in T20Is. We can recall that to start with, India did not play ODIs seriously. So, the first Indian to reach 1000 runs in ODIS was Kapil Dev!!! But later the true specialist Indian batsmen also started becoming equally succesful in ODIs as in tests. T20Is can not be the basis for entry to cricket - it could rather be the basis for entry into international cricket. Because still today, nearly after 35 years of the first WC, emerging players in various countries shine first in their respective domestic first class competitions and then they move to play other forms of cricket. So, if T20Is are to expand globally through Olympics as Gilchrist proposes, first class cricket will also have to expand.

T 20 is actually considered 2 b fun.fans take it as just a pass time it actually does not interest d cricket lovers it only attracts d fun lovers.i think cricket lovers still love the 50 over game nd d test cricket.as far crowd is concerned u wll always c people who love d game would come for test cricket coz they understand d game nd actually test cricket brings out d best in a captain coz in test cricket u need plan how to get a wicket but in T20 batsmen throw away their wicket so u dont need to work hard for getting a wicket in T20 a few dot balls nd u could b on ur way of getting a wicket..but in test cricket u see batsmen playing out d entire day it shows d character of players captains need to think out the opposition.i would always go for a match wit red ball nd green conditions rather than people dancing with beer in hand..test cricket for me is d real test of a cricketer.the ULTIMATE test