The ebb and the flow

What I really want to talk about here today is the impact of the 20 over game on cricket in general, and it’s potential for the future.

First things first, the fielding. Twenty20 has vastly improved the standard of fielding in the modern game. Having watched baseball over the last couple of years I’d say that the standard of fielding in international cricket is now better than that of baseball. Ridiculous stops, slides and throws are now commonplace and all without the aid of a really big glove. The improvement in fielding started with the ODIs and the higher standard required there to put pressure on batting teams. In Twenty20 every run is vital and should be scrapped for, so the fielding standard has been ramped up a notch once again. This has contributed to fielding improving across all formats of the game. So much so that someone such as Jonty Rhodes, the renowned fielder from the late 90s South African side, would not be considered hugely exceptional in the field today.

When Twenty20 started, it seemed to herald another nail in the coffin of the art of bowling. Bowlers were seen as glorified bowling machines there to simply supply the batsmen with balls to smack out of the ground. However, you should never underestimate how much bowlers really hate batsmen. And how much we’re determined to make their lives hell. Twenty20 has advanced the skill of ‘death bowling’ that occurs in ODIs into an art form. Slow balls, the use of the yorker, also the bouncer, they are all stock weapons for bowlers who cannot rely on nagging accuracy back of a length just outside off stump to contain run rates and get wickets. Predictability is the enemy of the Twenty20 bowler. Which probably explains why spinners play such an important role in the game now. They bowl slower, meaning the batsmen cannot use the pace of the ball off the bat to reach the fence. And a canny spinner can wreak havoc through deception, flight and their old weapon of people seeing something bowled slowly and really wanting to smash it out of the ground but failing to do so. In addition, bowlers now need to learn how to bowl 6 ball spells instead of 6 over spells. The Sri Lankans have used this to decent effect and this was shown in the final, with their bowlers constantly switching around so the batsmen couldn’t settle and get used to that bowler.

Once again looking at the start of Twenty20, the fear was that batsmen would lose technique as all they would be doing was slogging. While the slog-sweep and heave over midwicket for six are key elements of a Twenty20 game, slogging does not win you matches. Punishing bad balls, taking calculated risks, rotating strike and excellent running between the wickets gets you the matches. If you look at the West Indies v England match in the groups stages you’ll see my point. The Windies hadn’t been set a massive total, but looked at one stage to be throwing it all away. 6 wickets down, their youngsters had gone out and basically tried to smash every ball they faced out of the ground from the off. What won the match for the Windies were the calm heads, good running and elegant strokeplay of Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan that steered them home in ease. Another advent of Twenty20 batting is the thought that scoring at 8 an over for 5 overs is ‘eminently doable’ (I believe I’ve used that phrase on a number of occasions). 5 years ago I’d have said you were nuts if you thought that getting 40 off 30 balls was anything but a huge ask.

Ultimately, Twenty20 is here to stay. Frankly it’s been around for ages being played by club cricketers. But there is a need to avoid overexposure of this new format. The lure of big crowds and advertising will be great for those that run the game, but cricket needs to be sensible for once. For a sport that is regarded as fundamentally conservative, cricket has tendency to embrace radical shifts over a very short period of time which then become the status quo. Twenty20 works well: it’s accessible; it’s fun; it shows the best skills of cricketers in an intense match; and is exciting, with results often still in the air when approaching the final couple of overs. Just don’t milk it too much. Keep it so that it’s still a bit special and fun, the bread and butter pudding as opposed to the bread and butter.