Posts tagged with ‘Twenty20’

Who is to blame for Old Trafford?

I wasn’t there, I didn’t see it on TV. So what to make of the abandonment on Tuesday due to waterlogged run-ups? Who was to blame, the authorities at Old Trafford, or the teams and umpires? Reading the reports in the press, it is hard to say for sure, blame being apportioned to either one or the other.

Dump the P20 please, ECB

What benefit is the P20 supposed to bring to English cricket? The ECB initially unveiled it as their answer to the IPL, but it has been watered down and fudged so much that the original question has long been forgotten.

Alistair Cook does Twenty20

Something has clearly happened to Alistair Cook recently. Not content with a couple of quickfire half-centuries, he has now smashed 100 off only 57 balls against Surrey in the T20 Cup. That’s a strike rate of 175.43. For a player renowned for his sedateness at the crease, this is some achievement.

Crunch time for the future of cricket

The success of the recent World Twenty20 has intensified the debate surrounding the future of test cricket and what needs to be done to maintain it’s position as the pinnacle of cricket. There is little argument amongst players (Chris Gayle excepted) and officials that there is where it should remain. But how to achieve this?

Wakey, wakey ECB

Next season, in order to fit everything in, the ECB is proposing that the County Championship be reduced to 14 matches per team instead of 16.

World Twenty20 thoughts

The World T20 has left everyone with a warm, fuzzy glow. It was fun, exciting and unpredictable.

Americans on cricket

Here is a report in the Wall Street Journal about the friction between T20 and test cricket. Always interesting to read the views of someone on the outside looking in, and this is reasonably balanced.

Saffers suffer

Of all the reaction to South Africa’s surprise defeat to Pakistan in the semi-final of the World T20, by far my favourite and the most concise is this from The Reverse Swing Manifesto.

What has Graham Napier done wrong?

In the World T20, nothing. Because he didn’t get a game. Not even a warmup match.

With England’s biggest problem in T20 being not hitting many boundaries, this is scandalous. After all, Napier played the most explosive T20 innings ever and second only to Brendan McCullum’s IPL innings in 2008 in terms of runs scored.

England knocked out of World Twenty20

To be honest, this was probably as far as they were expected to get. That they managed to bounce back from the humiliation against Holland was creditable, and the victory over India was a feather in their cap.