T20: Changing the face of cricket globally.

Those five days, that used to be the test of skill, the test of temperament, the test of technique and tactics but they happened to be the test of patience as well both for the players and the spectators. But the grand old men of cricketing world say Test matches are where ordinary players are groomed into legendary cricketers. But time and tide waits for no man and waiting for five long days has always been a big deal.

And so the son of cricket was born in the form of One Day Internationals popularly known as ODIs. One day of pure fun and the result is in front of you. Higher run rates, batsmen with higher strike rates and the ball crossing the fences at higher frequencies and people shouting and hooting at the loudest. Cricket was growing but so was the world. And now in the 21st century when we order hamburgers instead of a full wholesome diet just to save our time, one day too was too big to handle. So cricket transformed into its most compressed avatar.

The grandson of cricket, twenty twenty or popularly christened as T20 is by far the shortest and most interesting version of cricket. T20 was a concept that was born in 2003 by England that is credited with the invention of this game too.T20 is less on time but more on entertainment. T20 is all about aggression. T20 is all about achieving. T20 is all about performing under immense pressure.

A T20 match is completed in three hours one inning lasting for approximately 75 minutes. The inaugural ICC cricket world cup was played in South Africa where India won the title by beating Pakistan in the final. T20 is different not only because it takes lesser time to get completed but it is associated with some of the most interesting rules like each bowler can bowl a maximum of 4 overs and a five run penalty on either side by the umpires if the umpire thinks the team is wasting time.

T20 is redefining the game of cricket and has made cricket more interesting than always. This accounts for a livelier atmosphere where smaller targets are to be completed with greater run rates.

But they say critics and shadows are everywhere and same is the case with T20. The critics say that this form of cricket will lessen its beauty. Cricket will turn into a brainless rush. But there is no point in denying the fact that T20 is slowly changing the face of world cricket. It is entertaining without making a person check his watch every time some thing that soccer has already done. Let us see where this offspring of cricket takes us...

By: techie_mishra
Published: 04/13/08