Twenty 20 Blog

Marcus Trescothick was this morning named in Somerset’s 15-man squad to take part in the Champions League in India next month.

Trescothick’s availability means he is set to return to the sub-Continent for the first time since having to leave England’s tour of India in 2006 because of a stress-related illness.

The 33-year-old opening batsman never resumed his international career because his condition prevented him spending protracted time outside his native country.

Somerset, who announced their squad on their official website, are prepared to go to significant lengths to help Trescothick deal with his fears over travelling overseas.

“Marcus Trescothick is in the squad as ways are sought to enable the former England opener to overcome the problems with travelling abroad to play cricket he has experienced as a result of his stress-related illness,” the club explained.

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Only a week after promising at least £150,000 to each county out of the revenue pot from the new competition - which was codenamed P20 - the ECB have been forced to scrap the whole project.

The key factor, according to ECB officials, is the lack of space in an overcrowded English season. Once you have scheduled two Test series in each summer, as well as the Champions League in late September, it is impossible to fit in a new competition without jeopardising the primacy of Test cricket and the interests of the England team.

But critics suggest that the whole project has always been built on insubstantial foundations. Even after a new set of TV rights have been sold into the Asian market, it is hard to see how English cricket can afford to pay for the involvement of dozens of international stars, especially as the England players themselves would expect extra remuneration for their participation.

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Has Shane Warne still got it and does he fancy a game in Cardiff this week? Those were the questions being asked by Australians at Lord’s last night as Warne’s Rajasthan Royals played a Twenty20 charity match against Middlesex Panthers.

It was, the legendary leg spinner claimed, his final match at Lord’s and he took a wicket to mark the occasion, but one suspects that there may be one or two more final appearances if the right money is offered.

He did not need any of the old magic as Middlesex continued their abject season in Twenty20 cricket. Chasing 163 to beat Rajasthan, they needed 11 an over when Warne brought himself on for the ninth over. He marked out a short run-up, adjusted his field several times and tossed out a ball that was so wide of Dawid Malan’s off stump that it would have needed two “balls of the century” for it to turn enough to hit the wicket.

Warne would later dismiss Malan, stumped as he tried desperately to accelerate the score, and despite several wayward balls he kept the rate down with ten runs off his first three overs to set up a 46-run victory.

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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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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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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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Thursday was the last day of Twenty20 cup before the counties went on a 16-day break for the ICC World Twenty20 which will be hosted by Lord’s, Oval and Trent Bridge from the 5th to the 21st of June.

Northern Division:

After a rather slow start to the campaign, Yorkshire seems to have come back strongly, and they registered an easy, eight-wicket win over Nottinghamshire. Batting first, the Notts got to a reasonable score of 155/6 in their allotted set of overs, all thanks to Adam Voges’ unbeaten knock of 82 that came off 55 deliveries. However, without any support at the other end, mainly brought about due to Naved-ul-Hasan Rana’s 4/23 in his four overs, the batting team could not get to more than their final score at a placid looking Headingley ground. Andrew Gale, however, put paid to any victory thoughts that the Notts would have entertained, by using 55 deliveries as well to smash 91 and his partnership of 129 with former English skipper Michael Vaughan sealed the match in the 18 overs. Yorkshire now has eight points from six games, while their opponents were left with 2 in as many games.

Leicestershire huffed and puffed to 144/6 at the County Ground, but then managed to restrict Derbyshire to 130/5 in the twenty overs to take the third spot in the table. The Leicestershire inning was buffered by a couple of 30s and 20s,

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29th of May saw a couple of relatively close games in the North and the South division, as well had the defending champions go down for the third time in a row to diminish their chances of making it to the quarter-finals to almost close to negligible.

North Division

The war of the roses saw Yorkshire go down to Lancashire rather easily, after it had won the toss and elected to bat first. The slowness of the pitch, combined with some really poor stroke-play saw Yorkshire collapse to 111/8 in their 20, thanks mainly to their Kolpak-signing, Jacques Rudolph (38), who batted through the inning. He had no support as the batsmen struggled against Sajid Mahmood – this season’s quickest bowler so far – and skipper Glen Chapple. Former English skipper Michael Vaughan scored 16, before being scalped by Chapple. In response, Tom Smith and Paul Horton warded off any early efforts to woo them into playing strokes, while Steven Croft hit an unbeaten 40 to guide Lancashire through.

It was an important game for Durham and Leicestershire, with the latter going into the game without a win. But Durham’s last-ball loss meant that they share the bottom slot with Yorkshire and Leicestershire. They managed to score a reasonable 144/8 in their twenty overs, after it initially they may not get even 120. But the late sparkle sown by Gareth Breese – 37 in 15 with seven boundaries and a six – also meant that the pitch had considerably eased up. Debutant Alex Wyatt bagged 3/14 in his four overs. Leicestershire’s reply was good, as former English stumper, Paul Nixon combined with James Allenby to score 53 apiece, but for

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The face of cricket, as it had been known to the pundits, has been almost irreversibly altered by a format of the game, which had been scoffed at to begin with as another one akin to the one found in a charity game, but has since then, been accepted by the majority. And what a turnaround it has been. Right from those times when the English cricket board introduced the Twenty20s to sway the crowds back into the stadiums to the BCCI rejecting the format and then reluctantly sending a team to the first edition of the ICC World Twenty20, followed by the glamour and the glitz of the IPL interspersed with the other controversial leagues in the ICL and the Stanford tournaments, Twenty20 has come a long way.

Not only has the general public’s interest at large, or the bank accounts of the players in particular been beefed up, but to play devil’s advocate – as a self-respecting lover of test cricket – there isn’t too much doubt that Twenty20s have assisted cricket in general.

From ‘test’ of patience to batting ferocities

Gone are the days when a dour-looking Geoffrey Boycott could prod and plonk his way to a century after playing through majority of the test match and then have Sunil Gavaskar return back the compliment and test the patience of both, the opposition bowling and the ground audiences to the hilt. Tons in only a

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Amidst sparse crowds and cries of overkill of cricket, the first day of the Twenty20 Cup saw three of the games going right down to the wire, one that had bad light ending play and another that saw the defending champions being dumped by the wayside!

North Division

Out of the six teams, four were in action and both games were a ripper. Nottinghamshire were beaten off the last delivery of the game by Durham, thanks to impressive half centuries by international discards, Ian Blackwell and Dale Benkenstein. The latter’s dismissal did ensue a later collapse, but Mitchell Claydon smashed a four off the last delivery to seal a narrow one wicket win. This, after only one run was needed at the start of the final over!

The other game had last season’s disqualified team, Yorkshire, huffing and puffing to a victory with only a ball to spare. After having restricted the Leicestershire inning to a modest 148/3 in the 20 overs thanks to Hylton Ackerman’s half century, Yorkshire began well but made heavy weather of chasing down the total. 110/2 became 125/7 and with 22 required in the final two overs, the game looked to have gone begging. Michael Vaughan scored a 30-ball 35 to signal his intentions before the Ashes. However, Ajmal Shahzad smashed a 16 off the penultimate over, and scampered around for the remaining six runs and pouched the game.

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