20-20 Champs

The 20-20 cricket revolution brought about by the ICC is great for the game. Not that it needed a boost in the sub-continent, but in the rest of the world, the following of cricket was dwindling. It needed a form a cricket which would attract more people. One must congratulate the ICC and the South African cricket board for hosting a fabulous tournament, in which there were no "boring" matches, or dead rubbers.

The 20-20 game, brings in new spectators who are willing to watch a fast paced match, which would get over within 3 hours. It is of little surprise that most of the popular international sports (soccer, field hockey, tennis, volleyball, table tennis, baseball, basketball, etc) are played over 3 hours or less, so as to attract huge crowds. Definitely, the game of cricket needed a format that would bring in more crowds (into the stadiums) and in general bring in a new section of people as spectators.

I think that the ICC and all the affiliated boards should make an effort to promote this form of the game, and not just have an international tournament every 2 years. Most of the "pundits" have asked the ICC to go slow on the 20-20 version, and not use it much. However, I differ on this. I believe that the revenues will come in more due to the 20-20 version. So as a roadmap, I can suggest that every internation tour should have 3 to 5 Test Matches, 3 to 5 One Day International Matches and 3 20-20 Matches. I can say with sureity that the largest crowds would come in for the 20-20 matches! Also, giving encouragement to this new format of the game, would bring in new players who would be specialists in this version of the game (NOTE: The specialist teams, like England, and South Africa were out by the quarter finals, whereas newbies like India and Pakistan made it to the finals).

Another step that ICC should take to grow the new version with care, is to create an international ranking (in the same format as done for Test Teams and players and ODI Teams and players) for 20-20 teams and 20-20 players. That would generate more interest. So far, Wikipedia carries a lot of statistics on the new version. I also feel that a shorter version of the game if promoted properly, could bring in new teams like the USA, Canada, Singapore, and who knows, they might play this version better than "ICC Test Recognised Teams"!

All the best ICC.
India are surely deserving champions.

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(Sports Aficionado)