Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Don't bash cricket's new direction

Sporting historians mark down December 16, 2012. From then Australian cricket will never be the same.
On that day the reincarnated Big Bash Twenty20 competition arrives on the sporting landscape.

Instead of State versus State, the new version of the century-old code will pit - and to unfortunately borrow a term from US sporting culture - franchise versus franchise.

There are plenty of crusty old cricket cronies who don't like the change. There is still some lingering resentment to the 50-over game among more seasoned watchers. Well then T20 must come from the devil.

Bowlers don't get rewarded for finding edges, batsmen swing like woodchoppers and fields have more holes than Chris Martin's defence. Teams are filled with players from all parts of the world.

Such methods must surely be having an impact on the longer form of the game. Maybe T20 is the reason why Australia's Test team is in a slump.

Too bad.
Punters love with the slap-and-giggle game.

Many Big Bash fixtures will have greater crowds than those at the recent Australian-New Zealand Test series. And then there are the Sheffield Shield matches, to which most supporters go to the ground in the same car.

Fans now crave the bite-sized version where they can enjoy all the excitement in a suitable time period.

The key is for Cricket Australia to properly manage Big Bash's impact on the summer calendar.

But cricket fans have embraced the T20 concept. And administrators would be fools for not giving customers what they want.

So it is time to sit back and enjoy the action over the next six weeks.

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