Sandy Strang: Short and sweet T20 making a big impact

IT'S T20 time once again for Scottish cricket. And it's growing bigger and better. On Saturday week the entire SNCL programme will halt for the day to accommodate a so-called T20 Festival encompassing all 31 clubs nationwide.

The new format will comprise nine regional groups of three or four teams in each group, those of three teams contesting a round robin, and those of four playing two semi-finals and a final.

The one-day event will be sponsored by Murgitroyd, who have backed the regional and national T20 tournaments for the past three years. "Partnership with Cricket Scotland and Roddy Smith and his team at Ravelston has been quantifiably of benefit to the company," said CEO Keith Young, "and I am sure the day will see club cricket around the country at its best."

Cricket Scotland chief executive Smith is equally upbeat: "We believe this is a great addition to the club cricket calendar, and it ensures a lot of local derbies for the clubs to enjoy." Especially attractive are an Edinburgh grouping incorporating Carlton, Grange, Heriot's and Watsonians; a Glasgow section featuring Clydesdale, Poloc, Weirs, and West; and a Lanarkshire one embracing Drumpellier, East Kilbride, and Uddingston.

Meanwhile, another fresh T20 development saw fruition at the weekend when the first regional T20 matches of the season beat the rains as the Caledonian Highlanders and the Western Warriors claimed one match each at sunny Mannofield on Sunday in the first-ever T20 double-header day. Star performers in the first match were Uddingston's bowler turned batter Calum MacLeod, who bludgeoned a ferocious 90 from just 45 balls, and Arbroath's Fraser Burnett, who replied with 49 in 47 before being stumped by Omer Hussain from the bowling of his cousin Majid Haq, whose typically parsimonious off-spin claimed three wickets for just 16 runs in his allotted four overs.

Reigning champions Caley, though, gained revenge in the second match which showcased just how exciting T20 can be as it went right down to the wire, Forfarshire's Umair Mohammed whacking the very last ball for four and victory. The new series resumes again at Myreside on Sunday week when the EasternKnights lock horns with the Highlanders in another double-header.

Yes, it is the game's most shortened form, but T20's hold on the popular cricketing imagination is surely lengthening.