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April 27, 2008
Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago in Twenty20
William Rees-Mogg, of the Times, has seen the great Don Bradman bat, and isn't impressed with cricket's latest format. In fact, he thinks its destroying the game's culture. In his view, Twenty20 "is a good deal less interesting than baseball, which is itself less interesting than cricket". In case you missed it first time round, the piece is now doing the rounds in Australia.
The culture of cricket now seems to be going the way of Troy, or indeed of the Roman Empire. The glory of cricket, with its intelligence and the complexity of the interplay, is sinking into the past. We are moving, surprisingly rapidly, into the dumbed-down cricket of Twenty20. Cricket first developed on village greens such as Hambledon, it looks as though it may come to an end at Bangalore.
Why do I instinctively dislike Twenty20 so much? It is not that I ever played cricket with even the lowest degree of club competence. I did have the good fortune to be a contemporary of Peter May at school. He was the leading batsman of the under-16 XI, and I was their scorer. My objection to Twenty20 is that it purports to be cricket but is a quite different and much less interesting game. Cricket seems to me to be the most fascinating of the team games of summer.
April 24, 2008
Posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago in Twenty20
Giles Smith has a funny take on the IPl in The Times.
People putting in the most effort at this point? That's an easy one. It's the cheerleaders. They never stop. And the cameras never stop showing them never stopping. The odd thing being, of course, that you have never seen crowds less in need of leaders for their cheering.
Meanwhile the Hindu's Nirmal Shekar doesn't seem too impressed with the shortest form of the game:
The best of sport allows for the pause. It lets us sit back and savour the has-been and dream of the still-to-come. Nothing that is breathless — and therefore leaves no room for a complex cognitive process leading to emotional fulfillment — can lay claims to sporting greatness.
Twenty20 is here to stay, and unless Test cricket and ODIs are given a subtle makeover we will be left with dessert and no main course, writes Dileep Premachandran in the Guardian.
But back to the cheerleaders (briefly). In The Telegraph, Paul Bolton writes about a beach cricket tournament that took place in Australia three months ago that has just now being shown on Sky. There is an inevitable comparison to the IPL, but what may also interest readers is our observation that the IPL was not the first to employ cheerleaders: the XXXX Angels set the trend by giving it some in the tournament, much to the unsurprising delight of the crowds.
The Guardian's Mike Selvey is excited about Allen Stanford's plans in the Caribbean.
How much would it cost him to take over the central contracts of the top players and up their wages to the sort of stratospheric levels that would prevent them from seeking greener grass elsewhere?
March 23, 2008
Posted on 03/23/2008 in Twenty20
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Allen Stanford pictured with a spectator
© Stanford 20/20
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| The Observer's Kevin Mitchell feels that the Stanford 20/20 is a tournament that the ICC can learn from.
Tucked away from the tumult and discord in Dubai was the Stanford 20/20 in the West Indies. It was, by all accounts, a thrilling, packed tournament - a template the ICC could profitably borrow. Prices were reasonable, interest compacted and intense. Of course the founder, Allen Stanford, wanted to make money. 'He might have broken even, this time, maybe not,' said a source, 'but it's long-term, America, huge market there.'
It's what those Madison Avenue guys call 'the vision thing'. The Indians have it. Stanford has it. I'm not so sure the ICC have even heard of it.
But he is also worried about the effect that the opposing Twenty20 leagues would have on the game.
Intoxicated by the prospect of quite extraordinary wealth, the people running cricket in India are convenient villains. And there can be no doubt they are driven almost solely by self-interest. But India has a right to be the epicentre of the game. The frenzied love of the people ensures it.
The concern is that the speculators reshaping the game, while sounding calm and conciliatory now, might not be so accommodating of the views of the rest of cricket once their power is near absolute. It is then that anarchy will be unleashed.
March 14, 2008
Posted on 03/14/2008 in English cricket
In The Times Christopher Martin-Jenkins pulls no punches in putting forward his views on the ECB’s plans for Twenty20 cricket this coming summer, describing them as a “knee-jerk” reaction to the IPL.
Presumably he [ECB chairman] Giles Clarke is motivated by a desperation to generate enough new television money (Sony paid £500million for ten years for the IPL rights) to be able to pay the England team even more to keep them free of the IPL's clutches.
Praising the Twenty20 Cup as “the ECB's greatest marketing success and a boon to all 18 first-class clubs, not least because their supporters, including some new ones attracted by the format, identify closely with the local team”, Martin-Jenkins believes tinkering with the format is “overkill” that will “only confuse”.
February 9, 2008
Posted on 02/09/2008 in Twenty20
Chris Rattue, writing in the New Zealand Herald, asks whether Twenty20 is all it is cracked up to be.
Is Twenty20 really a salvation for a game that is struggling in some old strongholds, offering a thrilling new road ahead. Or is it sporting candy, a rush of excitement that invites a subsequent and depressing lull?
Twenty20 is here to stay. But what about in two years' time, or five years, or 50 years? And might Twenty20 cricket devour the game which gave it life? Or could it be a flash in the pan, a glitzy newcomer whose charms quickly wear thin and leave a ghetto behind especially with the rich Indian leagues threatening to drag the world's best players to their extravaganzas?
January 27, 2008
Posted on 01/27/2008 in Indian Cricket
In the Sunday Telegraph, Michael Atherton says that the Indian Premier League and Twenty20 cricket is poised to take over, so you better get used to it.
It was said after the Ashes victory of 2005 that cricket was the new football; well, the IPL is cricket's version of football's Premier League, and the consequences, in terms of the finances and structure of the world game, are likely to be far-reaching.
But Atherton warns that rather than complement the traditional game, the new formats and new cash might well swamp it.
Further down the line, English county cricket may find itself threatened and the ECB, by sanctioning the IPL, may not so much have kept the barbarians at the gates, as let them through the front door. If the franchise model expands, as is the hope in India, then there will be a limit to how far a market can serve two masters. Even in India, a much bigger market for cricket, there will be a potential conflict between the new and the old. No prizes for guessing where a young, hip Calcuttan businessman will want to spend his company's dosh - and it's not with the antiquated Bengal Cricket Association. Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Red Chillies has far more appeal.
With franchise owners having staked megabucks on the IPL, the Times of India's Indranil Basu crunches the numbers to find out whether the IPL model makes business sense.
December 15, 2007
Posted on 12/15/2007 in Twenty20
It grieves me to write that Twenty20 will grow so rapidly over the next couple of decades that it may threaten the very existence of Test cricket, writes Kerry O'Keeffe in a hilarious column in the Sunday Telegaph.
Michael Clarke looked like Captain Grumpy before a ball was bowled - the music was too loud and Gilly was spilling his guts to Slats about the game plan on the two-way. He may have had "Pup'' on his back but he had mongrel on his mind - straight away he hit a pie from Mark Gillespie over long off for a Dorothy Dix.
Also read Chloe Saltau in the Melbourne-based Age, Tim Lane in the same paper, and Mike Coward in the Australian.
November 30, 2007
Posted on 11/30/2007 in Indian Cricket League
Writing in The Times, Shane Warne flags that Twenty20 will hit India, the game’s largest market, in a big way over the months ahead. The ICL starts today, although Warne has joined the official IPL – “there are lots of capital letters in those sentences” he admits - but Pandora’s Box has been opened, and Warne does not approve of the possible action against those playing in the ICL.
Both leagues give wonderful opportunities to professional cricketers and I think it is right that players should have the freedom to play in whichever of them they wish to. Although the ICL is yet to be given official blessing, I hope that players are not penalised or banned from other competitions.
Cricketers have to earn a living and the bills do not stop coming through the letterbox at the end of a season. It is wrong that honest men … with good reputations may be punished for simply accepting very good offers to ply their trade. The ICL has been described as a breakaway and a rebel league, yet comparisons to World Series Cricket in the late-Seventies do not stand up.
It will be interesting to see how the ICL works, whether the crowds give their support and how the facilities stand up. But, however popular it proves, I cannot imagine a big split in the game.
October 11, 2007
Posted on 10/11/2007 in Twenty20
Twenty20 transformed what originally had become a boring traditional English medieval game into what, with aggressive marketing, could be an immediate and gratifying entertainment, writes former England fast bowler Frank Tyson in Sportstar.
Twenty20 is simply the descendant of the game played by Medes and Persians. Man throws a ball, another man hits the ball with a stick, runs around a marker and scores a notch! — and the team registering most notches wins the contest. Simple! In this regard, however, it is worth remembering that democratisation can make a sport too coarse — or too lacking in the refinements which underlined an innings by Tendulkar or a spell by Bishan Singh Bedi.
After all, in the words of the poet Dryden, one should not blindly accept popular standards simply because they are those accepted by the majority. As Dryden wrote: “The most may err, as grossly as the few.”
September 29, 2007
Posted on 09/29/2007 in Twenty20
Even if the maths had been kind to the South Africans, writes Tom Eaton in the Mail & Guardian Online, they were simply not quick-witted enough to compete at the Twenty20 event.
Put a bowling machine 22 yards away and South Africans will hit it as far -- perhaps further -- than anyone in the world. But put a brain and will behind that ball and, well ...
September 28, 2007
Posted on 09/28/2007 in Twenty20
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Rohit Brijnath: "Twenty20 was invented by someone whose idea of understatement is Clint Eastwood with a six-gun and a scowl"
© Getty Images
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Twenty20 attracts to a point because it is not supposed to be taken too seriously, writes Rohit Brijnath in the Sportstar.
Twenty20 was invented by someone who grew up with ‘Rollerball’ posters in his room, and whose idea of understatement is Clint Eastwood with a six-gun and a scowl.
It’s a game that is the remarkable mix of many stolen parts: it has borrowed the idea that plot is irrelevant from Van Damme movies, it’s scrounged the concept of “music at changeovers” from the U.S. Open tennis, it’s spawned its own version of basketball’s dancing girls, it’s crude version of football’s penalty shoot-out, it’s got a hockey-style on-ground bench, and bears a resemblance to golf with its bizarre rules (what in God’s name is the free hit, some might well ask?). All that’s left is for Twenty20 to become a contact sport.
But, Brijnath goes on to admit, Twenty20 is enjoyable perhapsbecause it is new, because India is winning and because it makes one feel younger.
Twenty20 is the future, but it’s also the past. The game we embrace now is the one we left behind. Every shot played by Yuvraj that night against England was only an echo of our boyhood, when the water tank at the end of the lane was six, you couldn’t hit square because you might interfere with Mr. Ghosh’s breakfast, and if you took more than two singles in a row you were a nerd.
Michael Henderson is suitably less impressed with the format. He writes in the Daily Telegraph:
No matter how loudly people cheer, silence is always more memorable at a sporting event than noise... There may be some merit in this new-fangled game if an interest in it leads some of those young people towards the less immediate but altogether richer rewards of Test cricket. But surely I am not alone in thinking that the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, won by India, was not quite as remarkable as stout Cortez stumbling across the Pacific.
September 24, 2007
Posted on 09/24/2007 in Twenty20
It's fair to say that Australia has not embraced Twenty20 cricket to the same extent as other nations. Their defeat in the semi-final against India was the first time they had failed to reach the final of a major world tournament since 2004, and while India and Pakistan slug it out in Johannesburg, the Aussies are pondering the future of their beloved game. For Gideon Haigh, among others, the future is not entirely bright.
So the administrators have a hit on their hands, a hit that will reverberate. We have already seen the best-case scenario: a successful tournament still tinged with novelty.
Through time, however, it is likely that the main beneficiaries will be commercial intermediaries.
Cricket will make a great deal of money in the short term, money it has no obvious need for and will mostly waste, and it will be left a coarser, crueller, crasser game as a result. Now that the Twenty20 world championship is over, another proverb comes to mind: be careful what you wish for.
September 16, 2007
Posted on 09/16/2007 in Twenty20
Twenty20 has had its share of detractors, with the Australian's Peter Lalor being its latest critic. Lalor argues against cricket's new format, and has found an ally in Greg Chappell, the former Australia captain.
Now money is a good thing, but everybody knows that it can do strange things to people and to sport.
Former Test captain and the previous India coach, Greg Chappell, has been watching the lantana-like spread of Twenty20 with some concern. He says that while he is happy with the new game being played as a fundraiser at the domestic level, he is concerned that it might affect the focus of our most important breeding grounds for Test players -- the states.
Chappell points out that the one-day game has so distracted most of the other cricketing nations that they have fallen away in the five-day game. He worries that the simplistic Twenty20 form could do further damage. For a start, he finds the form is naive and needs development. "It's got limitations as a form, it is very one-dimensional," Chappell says. "It's certainly not the panacea for our ills as some consider it."
September 9, 2007
Posted on 09/09/2007 in Twenty20
The Sydney Morning Herald sheds light on cricket's proposed "Champions League". It claims that leading Australian cricketers could soon be earning wages comparable to that of the world's top footballers.
- Australia, India, England and South Africa each hold their own domestic competitions. India's domestic competition will feature franchised teams.
- The top two teams from each country qualify for an international tournament, which will feature a $US5 million prize pool.
- The first international tournament is expected to take place late next year.
September 8, 2007
Posted on 09/08/2007 in Twenty20
The Twenty20 format has won over new fans, writes Stuart Hess in the Independent Online.
In the fast-moving age of iPods, Playstations and Wap-enabled cellphones, 20-over cricket is the perfect expression of the sport's march into the 21st century.
Mike Haysman feels the ICC World Twenty20 will be the highlight of an otherwise dull year in his column in SuperCricket.
Test cricket is and always will remain the bedrock of the game. It dishes up intrigue and surprise when combatively presented and that quenches the thirst for stimulation. But now there is a new eager kid on the block.
September 7, 2007
Posted on 09/07/2007 in Twenty20
Australians, you sense, have not quite caught the World Twenty20 bug. The word on the street is that the tournament is an irrelevance - easy to say when you've won every tournament going. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck underlines the prevailing attitudes Down Under.
Anything less suited to solemnity than the sight of highly skilled cricketers whacking a ball about for 20 overs it is hard to imagine. Blink and it will be over. It is as far from Test cricket as were the antics of Ken Dodd from the grave pronunciations of Sir Laurence Olivier. Mr Dodd was a Liverpudlian comedian who took to the stage carrying a featherduster and with hair erupting from his scalp. When his thoughts turned to song he was generally accompanied by The Diddymen. Sir Laurence was otherwise inclined.
August 18, 2007
Posted on 08/18/2007 in Twenty20
Since its inception, Twenty20 cricket has found its supporters and detractors. With the inagural Twenty20 World Championship to be held in South Africa next month Peter Roebuck, writing in the Hindu, feels it is hard to take seriously an event so dependent upon tomfoolery. He says it is causing ruptures in the ranks of several international teams and cites the example of Jacques Kallis, who recently stepped down from the South African vice-captaincy after failing to find a place in the Twenty20 team.
"Greater players even than the South African have been omitted, including several distinguished Indians. They, too, serve at the behest, though hopefully not the whim, of their Board.
What are they missing? It is a pity that the tournament has been called a World Cup, a description that seems to claim parity with tumultuous events in football and rugby. But it is only a salesman’s pitch."
July 5, 2007
Posted on 07/05/2007 in English cricket
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After four years, since it first took off, some of the success of the Twenty20 Cup has now faded
© Getty Images
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Tanya Aldred in The Guardian reflects that after four bumper years, the lousy weather has hit the rollercoaster success of the Twenty20 Cup.
This year, things have soured. Divine retribution may have been a long time coming, but the rain hasn't stopped. The ECB hired four extra Super Sopper machines but still the matches are called off. Counties face a torrent of refunds and an equally unattractive administrative mountain. Umpires have asked for more protection - Peter Willey has spoken of getting in "professional security". The Hampshire bus was stoned and the players abused at Southgate, and the Middlesex players were relieved of their wallets. A combination of rain and alcohol has brought out the inner oik in some spectators. The ECB have pledged to act.
They need to or they are going to lose the very constituency that Twenty20 was invented to attract. While the liveliness of Twenty20 crowds is intoxicating, sitting next to drunken yobs, convinced that their chants are up there with Dorothy Parker's best bon mots, is no fun for anyone. It is no fun sitting even three stands away.
In The Times, David Fulton, who retired at the end of last season, highlights the problems that the weather causes for the players.
Not knowing whether a game will start is mentally draining. Most professional players will have set warm-ups and routines to follow before the battle commences. When time is of the essence, though, as is the case with a rain delay in Twenty20, umpires can start or resume play at a moment’s notice.
The trick is not to be caught off guard. While there is no point all eleven players staring out the window waiting for the rain to stop, it’s important that you want to get out there and that you’re mind is ready for any scenario. There is a danger that players enjoy rain just a little too much. In the context of a long season, where the aching joints need a rest, this is understandable. Getting paid to play cards with your mates can also seem more appealing than having to stick your neck out and perform in front of a crowd and the media spotlight. Psychologically, it’s important you don’t let your mind get lazy.
June 27, 2007
Posted on 06/27/2007 in English cricket
In The Daily Telegraph Derek Pringle warns that the success of Twenty20 cricket is bringing its own set of problems with growing worries about the behaviour of crowds. And the authorities, quick to clamp down on players, are not so proactive when it comes to tackling fans.
Cricket, despite its genteel image of bucolic charm, is not immune from oiks, so we are not talking about the end of innocence here. But part of Twenty20's mission statement was to attract a new audience and many reckon that, along with the rise in the number of women and children at matches, there is a growing boorish element.
At Essex's match against Sussex last Friday, regulars spoke of a section singing ribald football-style songs, a new departure at Chelmsford even for Twenty20. Nothing wrong there you might think, the Barmy Army have been doing it for ages, but with alcohol available for long periods and minimal policing, some feel it is a tinderbox just waiting to be sparked.
June 22, 2007
Posted on 06/22/2007 in Twenty20
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Pretty in pink: Middlesex and Surrey meet at a sell-out on the opening night of the Twenty20 Cup
© Empics
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| Patrick Kidd in The Times writes that the Twenty20 Cup, which starts today, has grown from a gimmick into a fully-fledged and respected competition.
Eagles fighting with Sharks, sparks flying between the Dynamos and the Lightning, and a derby between the Brown Caps and the men in pink shirts: it’s Twenty20 time again as the shortest form of cricket starts its fifth season this afternoon. Yet somewhere over the past four years of beach parties, mascot races and evening boozing, a decent tournament has emerged. Counties no longer need gimmicks to fill their grounds, many people come simply to watch cricket.
Last year, more than 500,000 people watched Twenty20 and the growth is set to be even greater this season, with Surrey alone having sold more than 100,000 tickets for the Brown Caps’ four home games and many other counties reporting sell-outs.
In The Daily Telegraph, Martin Smith flags 20 Twenty20 facts you might not know … and interesting they are too.
No one has hit a century in an international Twenty20 match. Ricky Ponting went closest for Australia against New Zealand in 2005 - in the very first Twenty20 international - but finished on 98 not out scored from 55 balls.
Cameron White, predictably an Australian, holds the highest individual score, thumping an unbeaten 141 (14 fours, six sixes, 70 balls) for Somerset against Worcestershire last summer. He also shares the second-highest total of 116 not out.
A crowd of 26,500 turned up to watch Middlesex v Surrey in 2004, the first Twenty20 match at Lord's, the largest attendance for a county game other than a one-day final since 1953.
Middlesex will wear pink outfits in the Twenty20 Cup this season in support of their partnership with Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
Posted on 06/22/2007 in Twenty20
Jon Pierik writes in the Herald Sun the international players’ association and the ICC have not agreed on terms for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September.
In the same paper there is a report about Cricket Australia meeting the federal government in July as CA devises a drug policy that is likely to be adopted before next season.
January 12, 2007
Posted on 01/12/2007 in Twenty20
There’s a certain irony in that the latest broadside against Twenty20 cricket comes from Australia, the country which took one-day cricket, made it a modern product with coloured clothing, white balls and floodlights … and then flogged it to death with endless round-robin series which left players exhausted and airlines counting the cash. In The Australian, Mike Coward is less than impressed with the new format:
What purpose does it fill in the international arena other than providing the ICC with another dedicated event it can call its own?
So much for the joy of the traditional game and the apparent re-establishment of the Ashes as the game's iconic series: that was eight days ago. Since Ponting and his team-mates held up the Waterford Crystal trophy - rather than the actual urn which, for the moment, is on display at the Melbourne Cricket Club's new museum at the MCG - there have been 10 Twenty20 matches around the country, including the international won by Australia over England at the SCG on Tuesday. Yesterday the 50-over format got under way and the domestic Twenty20 final is on today. Roll up. Roll up.
In the Sydney Morning Herald, Philip Derriman looks at the way the game has grabbed a large - and fresh - audience:
The TV audience for Tuesday's match against England, which averaged 2.31 million and peaked at 2.81 million, was an all-time record for any kind of cricket match in Australia. Previously, the biggest audience was the one that tuned in to last year's Twenty20 match against South Africa. Its average audience was 2.18 million.
To judge from the fans at the SCG on Tuesday night, the audience was young as well as big. When at one point during the telecast Ian Healy wandered into a section of the grandstand with his microphone, he looked to be the only one over 21.
Healy had the following exchange with a pony-tailed girl of around 11 years old: Did you come to the Test match? No. Did your dad? Yes. Are you thinking you might come to the one-day matches now? Maybe. Or just stick with Twenty20? Twenty20!
July 21, 2006
Posted on 07/21/2006 in West Indies cricket
Brian Lara is in Dubai while West Indies take time out from the international merry-go-round, and while there he talked to local journalists about his views of the modern game, making it clear that Test cricket was where his heart lay.
“Test cricket is my game. It is a game I really love to play. Before being asked to captain the team for the third time, I tried to guide my career in the direction of playing more Test cricket and less one-day games."
He also gave his views on Twenty20.
"I don't think it tests the ability of players like Tests do. But it is good for the crowd. You are playing a sport, and sport is all about spectators."
June 2, 2006
Posted on 06/02/2006 in Twenty20
First it was Kerry Packer. Now Alan Stanford. Neil Manthorp analyses Stanford's ambitions in running cricket, like his revolutionary predecessor, starting with the Twenty20 international in Antigua. Read the full piece in Supercricket.
Stanford wants to see what happens to cricketers when they're playing for something real, something that might just affect the rest of their lives. Imagine what R550 000 would mean to Loots Bosman, for instance.
April 22, 2006
Posted on 04/22/2006 in Twenty20
The 20-20 World Cricket Classic gets underway tomorrow in Bermuda. The tournament comprises "classic" teams, made up of former Test and one-day players from the major cricketing nations: West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand, India, England, Australia and Bermuda (see the full list of players here).
Eight leading cricket nations will pitch battle for the world's first ever 20-20 World Cricket Classic title in Bermuda during April, 2006. Over 100 of the greatest international cricketing legends will represent South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies, Sri Lanka, India, England and the host team, Bermuda.
The island paradise of Bermuda, with its sub-tropical climate, stunning scenery and world renowned pink beaches, offers a stunning backdrop to the inaugural 20-20 World Cricket Classic. Just a stone's throw from the Caribbean and West Indies and a favourite destination from the UK, Europe, USA and Canada, the Classic will undoubtedly prove to be an attractive location to combine cricket camaraderie with tourist indulgence.
More information on the event, and how to obtain tickets, can be found at their website.
March 25, 2006
Posted on 03/25/2006 in Twenty20
Andrew Ramsey imagines a Twenty20 World Cup at Orlando. He tells you of the various possibilities that might unfold, before describing an epic final contested between England and Australia.
January 27, 2006
Posted on 01/27/2006 in Twenty20
A Twenty20 world championship may be slotted into the calendar as soon as next year as the format born in England continues to pass every test of its popularity, writes Richard Hobson in The Times.
January 10, 2006
Posted on 01/10/2006 in Twenty20
Oh dear. The Aussies just can't get it right, can they? First their nicknames came in for a pounding, now it's the shirts they're printed on as noted by The Advertiser, an Adelaide-based newspaper. Now, The Surfer likes to try to stay clear from sartorial judgements as a rule, but this time the critics may have a point.
Posted on 01/10/2006 in Twenty20
Australia's Nathan Bracken would like to see the introduction of ball boys to Twenty20 cricket, in the same way as they're used in Tennis:
Bracken said the introduction of ball boys would speed the game up even further with players not required to chase the ball over the rope.
"Because you're on a tight schedule, an hour and 15 (minutes) to bowl your overs, if you can get some kids out there to be a part of the game on the boundary and basically get the ball it would make it that little bit quicker," he said.
"It would make it a little bit more exciting for the crowd and gives the fielding side more of a chance to get through their overs."
Good idea, or utter laziness?
January 9, 2006
Posted on 01/09/2006 in Twenty20
The Australian has an amusing take on the significance of Australia's first international Twenty20, but it also has a warning:
"The one thing international cricket does not need is further programming pressures, so leaving Twenty20 fixtures as a cash cow for the tiers below would ensure the golden goose ain't headed for the Colonel's deep-fryer."
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