Seeking Twenty20 vision

Published on Saturday 14 June 2008 19:43

SO HELICOPTERS are landing at Lord's and money is being dropped over cricketers like propaganda over Saigon.

An interesting spectacle, albeit a slightly tacky one, but when one pursues the mighty dollar as assiduously as Giles Clarke, chairman of the ECB, then class and dignity are not needed. Only the cash is and Allen Stanford, Texan billionaire, has plenty of that and he is splashing it round with glee. Twenty20 is the next revolution of cricket and he wants in. His plan is to expand the game for television throughout north America andultimately to make another fortune because none of his acts thus far has been philanthropic. The man makes money, has no interest in the history of cricket despite using former West Indian greats like Sir Viv Richards and Sir Garry Sobers like garnish,

and was quoted this week saying that he had no interest in Test cricket because it was boring.

At least we know what Stanford thinks and by all accounts what some of the players do as well. Paul Collingwood, England's Twenty20 captain, was refreshingly honest earlier in the week when he said the money was so huge it was turning players' heads.

But it is not just the Stanford one-off match in Antigua between England and a West Indies XI that has cricketers considering money to compare with Premiership footballers. That match is a stunt, has no competition and is a winner-takes-all frenzy solely designed for TV and marketing.

The IPL and England's own domestic Twenty20 have joined forces for a Champions League in late September with $5m up for grabs. The two finalists from South Africa, India's IPL, Australia and the English Twenty20 competition will compete.

For a version of the game that only started six years ago in England and was sniffily ignored by many pundits, it sure has come a long way. The purists – and I am one – still love Test cricket, but Twenty20 is here to stay. And the players love it. Rob Key, winning captain last year with Kent, was still buzzing with adrenaline after last Wednesday's victory over Sussex. "This game is great," he said. "We get full houses which brings kids in, money in and creates a real atmosphere around the clubs and the town and the game is great fun to play. It's not the hit and giggle that many thought because so many of the skills needed are just the basics of all cricket but done a lot better and faster. I don't know what level we would reach critical mass but I reckon this Twenty20 is the best one day cricket going and the one we should concentrate on."

Which is a polite way of saying that the current 50-over games and 40-over leagues are redundant. Well? They are, and the ICC and domestic governing bodies are going to have to accept the fact that their cash cows of the past 20 years have been replaced. It will not be easy as sponsors and television companies will want their contracts honoured and the 50-over World Cup is a prestigious event and a valuable part of cricket's heritage. The ICC Champions Trophy is easily culled though. A recent invention, its sole purpose was to generate money for the ICC to use on developing lesser nations. With the money coming far quicker and in larger amounts from Twenty20, the Champions Trophy has no role. For any of this to happen, though, an outbreak of common sense would have to occur among cricket administrators. The players simply cannot maintain the intensity. There is too much cricket and too little time for the players to work on skill sets, receive proper rest and recover from assorted niggles.

The simple solution for internationals is to continue with Test cricket as the pinnacle of the game and then have the World Cup every four years and then a series of home Twenty20s augmented with a Twenty20 world cup. Domestically in England there could be two Twenty20 competitions. One a franchise version of the IPL and then the second the current arrangement. Both could be completed in three weeks – early June for one and mid-August for the other – and that would leave a decent period for a proper, testing county championship.

This is not fanciful thinking of a journalist but the mutterings of a current county coach. Indeed so powerful is Twenty20 now that more than one county has held strategy meetings deciding to concentrate more of their resources on Twenty20. The potential earnings and increased interest in the clubs demands it.

And why not? Cricket, for all its history and heritage, is part of an increasingly competitive entertainment industry and it has a record of accepting change and revolution. One day cricket started in earnest as recently as the 1970s so it can be adapted. Test cricket must remain the purest form of the game. It exposes players' characters far more than one day cricket and develops rhythms and storylines that can be utterly compelling. Doubters need only think of the 2005 Ashes series. Two nations and the rest of the cricketing world were captivated for over eight weeks as a five-match series ebbed and flowed with almost every over.

The trick will be to convert the children that are attracted to Twenty20 to the longer game as well. It should not be hard. Every match I have been to has been packed with kids playing on the field before the match, cheering every ball and enjoying the occasion. That is why Twenty20 should be celebrated and if we have to endure helicopters and cheap stunts, then so be it.