The latest edition of The Big Issue Magazine features veteran Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting on the cover and question’s whether his Test team is being upstaged this summer by a brash new form of cricket – Twenty20. Grab a copy now from your local vendor or purchase a subscription online. $5 with $2.50 going straight into the pockets of homeless and marginalised Australians (www.bigissue.org.au)
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Whilst for many people the demise of 50 over cricket is inevitable, surely the more pressing concern is that 20 over cricket will go the same way and be replaced by 10/10 games. Why? 50 over cricket is becoming obsolete because teams have mastered the ability to time their innings,leading to the tawdry "knock the ball around" overs between overs 20 and 35/40. Surely as 20 over cricket becomes more popular, teams will discover a consolidation period in their innings also. Admittedly it might be only for overs 7-14 but it will still happen. So this leads to 10/10 cricket to try and drive out the boring overs and then where do we stop. 5/5? 2/2? Or maybe Brett Lee and Chris Gayle should have a 6 ball contest so everythings over in 20 minutes. I fear that our generation's need for immediacy will lead to this.
Following Australia’s historic Ashes defeat on Sunday, Australian Captain Ricky Ponting has been dropped from the up coming Twenty20 matches in England and Scotland starting Aug 28th. Other casualties include out of form batsmen Mike Hussey and seam bowler Peter Siddle.
Despite publicly backing Ricky and his teams’ performance throughout the Ashes series it seems that the Australian Selection Panel’s actions are somewhat different from their words – Australia lost to England therefore changes need to be made.
National Selector Andrew Hilditch commented that the Twenty20 squad was picked keeping in mind the looming World Twenty20 series in the West Indies in May.
Hilditch goes on to say that the omission of Ricky Ponting will provide a great opportunity for Vice Captain Michael Clarke to captain in the two Twenty20 matches and one ODI against Scotland.
“The selection panel is using the two matches against England to look at different make-ups to the squad and include players who we consider Twenty20 specialists in preparation for the ICC World Twenty20 next year," he said.
Gary Bowen
T 20 format of cricket has emerged as a global phenomenon .Right from its start it has gained momentum and success by attracting volumes of spectators around the world.
Not only does it contracts the time span of viewing it but the frequency of the cricket moments has risen.The number of sixes,fours,slogging,hard hitting has become the norm for the purpose.People enjoy the tense speedy nature of this format.
Its invention has sparked the debate of inclusion of cricket as a game in olympics too.
One couldnot turn his ear and eyes away onces the match begins.This is the beauty of the T20 format.
However this format is leaving no stone unturned to make sure that timing of shots,good techniques and grace of gentlemen cricket to be lost from the game forever.
Now one cannot expect to see stevewaughs timed captains knock.One cant expect to see sir ianbotham bowling for days to make a match out of it.
Felt held elderly citizens statued on the spectators seats ,giving a decent thump of clap on once a while good looking shot will become a rare treat with this format.
The entertainment of T20 has taken away the precision and accuracy from the true nature of game of cricket.
Johan Botha led his team from the front to guide South Africa to a 17-run victory over Australia in the second Twenty20 international in Pretoria.
The Proteas captain took 2-16 runs and was given good support from debutants Yusuf Abdullah (1-16) and Roelof van der Merwe (1-30), while Johann Louw (2-36) also chipped in as the visitors were limited to 8-139.
Van der Merwe also made a useful contribution with the bat, slamming 48 from only 30 deliveries as the hosts posted 5-156.
In response, the tourists raced to 37 from only four and a half overs before they were pegged back by Albie Morkel, who managed to outfox David Warner walking down the wicket and yorked him for 20.
One run later, Abdullah sent a slanting delivery across Ricky Ponting, tempting him to drive, but he only managed to edge behind to Mark Boucher.
Botha brought himself on and, after going for only two in his first over, came back and bowled Michael Clarke going for a powerful sweep with the first ball of his second for 27, before hesitation between new man Callum Ferguson and David Hussey led to the former being run out.
Needing 92 from 54 balls, Hussey briefly threatened to emulate his 88 from 44 balls at the Wanderers on Friday before he was eventually out for 27.
The score was 101 at the time and only five more runs were added before the fall of the next wicket - Cameron White slogging a Botha delivery straight to JP Duminy on the boundary for 23.
Louw then came in to bowl the final over with Australia needing 27 to win and he struck with his second ball - James Hopes miscuing a slower ball to Morkel at mid-wicket for 18.
Nathan Bracken (nought) then top-edged his fifth ball, leaving Brad Haddin unbeaten on 16 and Australia 17 runs short of victory.
Earlier, Titans all-rounder Van der Merwe's innings proved the highlight in front of his home crowd at Supersport Park, thumping four sixes and two fours in his 30-ball innings to help the South Africans post a decent total after they were kept in check by the Australian bowlers.
Shane Harwood (2-21) and Hopes (1-26) were largely responsible for that after Ponting had earlier won the toss and decided to bowl.
Gibbs and Robin Peterson, who was promoted to open the batting, made a decent start, taking the score to 22 before the former was out for 20.
Seven balls later, another debutant in Ben Laughlin struck in his first over of international cricket when De Villiers went hard at a wide delivery but only managed to pick out White at short cover for a duck.
Peterson and Duminy began to build nicely thereafter with a 47-run partnership before Peterson gave himself too much room on the leg side and was bowled by Hopes for 34.
Duminy then walked across his stumps looking to paddle-sweep but completely missed the ball and was bowled by Harwood for 23.
Morkel (14 not out) and Boucher (nine not out) tried their best to up the tempo but were restricted by the Australians.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting was happy with the overall performance in the four-wicket loss to South Africa in the first Twenty20 international against South Africa, but not as pleased with the result.
The Aussies looked likely to win the match when the hosts needed 84 from 47 balls with only five wickets remaining.
However, Australia couldn't get the wickets it needed and South Africa won a thrilling encounter with just four balls to spare.
"I'm disappointed to lose the game, because we certainly got ourselves into a position in which we probably should have won," he said.
"That's what's the disappointing thing about it. If we hadn't gotten ourselves into that position then I wouldn't have been too disappointed."
"You want to win every game you play and we wanted to win tonight. We've trained well the last couple of days."
"We were a long way off our best cricket tonight, but the satisfying thing is that we had a very good chance to win the game."
Australia had several unfamiliar names in its team tonight, including Shane Harwood and Brett Geeves - who conceded 83 runs between them in 7.2 overs - and Ponting is hoping they can learn from the experience.
"Geeves and Harwood playing tonight, a couple of guys that have been the best performers in domestic cricket back in Australia, they deserved the opportunity to play," he added.
"Both would have learned a lot from the experience, they're bowling to good players on good wickets."
"It just goes to show in this game you've got to execute everything, almost perfectly as a bowler or you're going to go around the park."
"So, they'll learn a lot from that and the more games we can get into the younger guys, it's a chance for them to learn and for us it's a chance to learn more about them and the better off we'll obviously be."
Proteas captain Johan Botha was full of praise for Mark Boucher and Albie Morkel after they helped South Africa snatch the unlikely victory at the Wanderers.
Chasing 166, the Proteas looked well out of the game at 5-83 with just under eight overs remaining, before the pair put on 58 in five pulsating overs to edge the hosts closer to victory.
Morkel was eventually out for 37 off just 19 balls with the score on 141, but Boucher finished unbeaten on 36 to hand his side a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
Speaking afterwards, the captain was full of praise for his wicketkeeper, who has come under intense pressure in recent months following his lack of contribution with the bat.
But Botha said: "He's done it many times before and he just showed us again tonight that he's probably our best finisher with Albie."
"He deserves his place in the team and has a lot of input off the field as well which makes him very valuable."
Reflecting on Morkel's performance, he continued: "I think he showed us all summer how good he can be."
"With 62 off 30, a lot of teams will think they're out of it, but with our two guys that were still in, we knew we were still in it."
"They showed that at the end and Albie's bowling too is important. He's a world-class all-rounder."
Botha admitted that the victory, only their second in a total of five against the Australians, was very pleasing.
"It was a really good win tonight," he added. "It got a bit tight, but with those two out there we had hope.
"That's what they get paid for, the big bucks, because they do it under pressure and they did it again tonight. But with those two in and with a long way to go, we knew we still had a chance."
The two sides have a day's rest before doing battle again on Sunday (SA time) at SuperSport Park.
Need of time...indeed twewny 20 horse,is there nay one to handle the ruions of this horse?Certailnly as expected ICC has a confused policy.All the member countries are running thier own leagues etc.There is no system alogether which can be put into a perfect mechanism.
Twenty 20 comes as a great blessing in rather short world of cricket and can cause abrupt development in cricket due to its huge popularity even in domestic competitions.It is a golden moment for cricket and if it not handled properly then the cricket should not get the advantage it should gain.
All the players,ex players,expertises and lovers of cricket game should come forwar and formulate a policy how to handle the twenty 20 format.Its a big time really.
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