Twenty 20 Blog

The composition of the First Division for the inaugural season of P20 - Durham, Hampshire Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Sussex and Warwickshire - is now known but the counties are still uncertain how much the new competition might be worth to them.

The ECB are believed to be close to concluding a broadcasting deal with ESPN-Star Sports but counties are anxiously awaiting details of the likely sums involved as they prepare to draw up their playing budgets for next season.

“We have had no financial details from the ECB about how much the P20 is likely to be worth to us,” said David Smith, chief executive of Leicestershire who secured their place in the P20 elite by finishing third in the North group of the Twenty20 Cup.

“In terms of player recruitment we need to know how much we might be talking about so that we can plan our recruitment and manage our squad accordingly.”

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The proposed Southern Premier League involving teams based in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand looks increasingly unlikely to go ahead due to the crowded international calendar.

It had been hoped the Twenty20 tournament, which would involve the leading players from all three countries plus other international stars, would be held in October every year, starting from 2011.

But early discussions around the International Cricket Council’s post-2012 Future Tours Programme (FTP) has made the three countries realise that no natural window exists for the tournament.

“The problem that we’ve had is trying to find space. We all know that there is a lot of international cricket,” said New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan.

“We’ve got a lot of international cricket events like the World Twenty20. There’s the World Cup and then there is the Indian Premier League which takes place in April-May every year.”

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England’s performance in the World Twenty20 was a strange mix and in a way summed up this form of the game - completely unpredictable.

They were widely ridiculed when defeat to Holland in the tournament opener put them in danger of an embarrassingly early exit but just a few days later they claimed an emphatic win of eventual champions Pakistan. This was followed by a drubbing at the hands of South Africa, a thrilling win over India by the narrowest of margins before a rain-affected exit at the hands of the West Indies who really came alive again in this competition after a dismal performance in last month’s Test series.

However as disappointing as their exit was, given the tight finish and England’s recent dominance against the West Indies, did they deserve to be in the semi-finals ?  Probably not and it’s only down to the excellence of their bowlers that they got anywhere near. The trio of Anderson, Sidebottom and Broad were a revelation and give England plenty to build on in this form of the game in the future. They all possessed that deadly combination of accuracy, pace and variety and showed the sort of nous that English bowlers have lacked in limited overs cricket for all too long. Apart from against the West Indies, the bowling at the death was superb, particularly against India where it was no mean feat to hold off the might of Mahendra Dhoni and his big hitting compatriots.

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Midlands, Wales, West Division

A half-century from Ben Wright and 49 from Tom Maynard led Glamorgan to a six-wicket win against Gloucestershire at Bristol. The match had no impact on which teams would qualify for the quarter-finals from the division, though, because Gloucestershire and Glamorgan were at the bottom. Gloucestershire relied on David Brown, who scored 56, and James Franklin to lead them to 148 after they had struggled to 33 for 3 at the start. The total, however, wasn’t enough despite Glamorgan’s top-order misfiring. They were 54 for 4 before Wright and Maynard began their match-winning partnership of 97.

A terrific spell from Andrew Hall and a half-century by Stephen Peters ensured Northamptonshire finished first in their division with a seven-wicket win against Worcestershire at Northampton. Johan van der Wath struck the first blow, bowling Vikram Solanki for 5, before Hall and Nicky Boje increased pressure on Worcestershire by bowling economically. Hall struck vital blows as well, taking 4 for 19, while Boje picked up 1 for 16 to restrict Worcestershire to

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With a glittering array of batting talent, the experience of winning in 2007 and huge partisan crowds India were the bookies favourites to win the ICC World Twenty20 2009. Their failure to even make it out of the Super 8s was the biggest shock of the tournament.

So why did India fail to perform?  With all due respect to the likes of Zaheer Khan and RP Singh, it’s the batsmen who win matches in Twenty20 and India’s star-studded line-up were like rabbits in the headlights at times, a fact captain Mahendra Dhoni has acknowledged.

“The bowlers did well but the batting really hasn’t been up to the mark. With the batsmen, if the top three don’t click it becomes very hard.”

The loss of Sehwag hit India hard

A lot of people underestimated just how much the loss of injured opener Virender Sehwag would affect the team. Sehwag is a proven performer on the biggest stage and India missed his ability to set the tone of an innings and make the best attacks look ordinary. Momentum is huge in Twenty20 and without Sehwag, India lacked experience at the

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When cricket historians look back in years to come they may well decide that 2009 was the year that the Twenty20 format came of age. They will say this was the year when the unruly offspring joined the accepted family of cricket’s formats.

Perhaps not regarded as the ultimate test of a team’s ability, that will surely always be the five-match five-day Test series, but still a valid and recognised method of sorting out the cricketing men from the boys.

Why 2009? You may ask. Well two reasons. First the IPL was moved from its natural home in India due to security reasons for its second season prompting a multitude of questions.

Could the organisers and the South Africans hosts put on the event at such short notice? Yes, they could. Would it be as exciting as the inaugural season? Yes. Would the passion of the crowds transfer to South Africa? Would the playing standards reach the same levels? Would the best in the world still be queuing up to appear? Yes, yes and yes.

But there was one important question that was answered no. Would it surpass and replace international cricket?

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Since its launch in 2008 the IPL has been a cricketing phenomenon. The money men have long been exploring possibilities to cash in on the game’s immense popularity in Asia and they’ve done so in spectacular style with the most lucrative tournament cricket has ever seen.

There’s no doubt that Twenty20 and the IPL in particular have revitalised cricket, attracting a whole new audience to the game and providing a level of financial reward rarely seen outside of football. However you can have too much of a good thing and the game’s administrators need to be careful that the Twenty20 format doesn’t stray down the same path as 50 over cricket. International cricket in recent years has become a year-long treadmill with too many meaningless one-day matches featuring players simply going through the motions.

The IPL 2010 will be held from March-April

These thoughts came to mind when I saw the provisional 2010 schedule (it will be made concrete in a few months). The plan is to hold the IPL a month earlier than usual, straight after India’s February tour to South Africa. This means the tournament will run from March-April with most of the matches taking place in March. The reason for shifting it back in the calendar is because the World Twenty20 is being held from April-May and those who run the game want to

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Tim Evershed of Twenty20Blog.co.uk shares his ultimate World Twenty20 2009 team, in batting order:

1) Tillakaratne Dilshan

Dilshan was the worthy winner of the ICC’s Player of the Tournament award and despite his failure in the final we had no hesitation in putting him first on our team of the World Cup.
His stats are compelling enough, most runs in the tournament (317), highest score (96), and average of 56 and a strike rate of 144.75.
But Dilshan’s story was about more than just numbers, he was the rock of Sri Lanka’s batting – scoring well over half the team total in the semi against West Indies – and he did it in style. To cap it all he invented a new shot and had it named after him, the gravity-defying ‘Dilscoop’ and was agonisingly short of the only century of the tournament.

2) Chris Gayle

If the tournament needed setting alight, which is arguable after The Netherlands win over England in the opener, it was Gayle that lit the blue touch paper with his innings at The Oval on the second day. Six sixes and six fours, the 88 he scored off the Australian bowlers was a thing of savage beauty.

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Runners-up last time, Pakistan went one better in the midsummer sunshine at Lord’s, winning the World Twenty20 by eight wickets with eight balls to spare. It was an emotional occasion for a side who have been disenfranchised by terrorism, unable to play matches at home, destined to roam the world in search of cricket to sustain interest and their development. No one, not even those who would have seen as cathartic a Sri Lanka win, will begrudge them their triumph in front of a fervent crowd, the noise of which will have disturbed the St John’s Wood Sunday for some hours afterwards.

It was not the final perhaps that the occasion demanded, a pattern that followed the earlier success of the England women. Sri Lanka, such a vibrant side throughout, were lacklustre, unable to recover sufficiently from early setbacks with the bat, and equally unable to make the necessary inroads with the ball, to trouble Pakistan. Set 139 to win on a good pitch, Pakistan had only to fight themselves and their capacity for self-destruction and in this they did not falter, an unbroken third-wicket stand of 76 in 59 balls between the wonderful Shahid Afridi, enjoyment etched into his face, and Shoaib Malik saw them home. A scampered leg bye finished things, leaving Afridi, 54 not out, arms and legs stretched wide before being engulfed by a tidal wave of team mates. To him went the man of the match accolade.

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Sri Lanka feel Shahid Afridi is a major threat to their hopes of being crowned ICC World Twenty20 champions at Lord’s on Sunday.

The all-rounder put in a man-of-the-match performance to help Pakistan beat favourites South Africa in the semi-finals, hammering 51 off 34 balls and then claiming 2-16 with his leg spin.

Afridi’s efforts helped push his side through to a second successive final in the tournament having lost out to rivals India in the inagural event.

While Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara acknowledges the 29-year-old will be a key man, he believes Pakistan has plenty of strength in depth.

Plans

“We’ve faced some of the players we’re going to play against and Afridi is a player who can take the game away from you in a few overs,” said Sangakkara.

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