LONDON, Sept 17: Former England captain Michael Atherton believes the rapid rise of Twenty20 cricket could jeopardise more traditional forms of the sport.

With the first Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa proving popular with TV and fans alike, Atherton says it has overshadowed the World Cup earlier this year in the Caribbean.

“It has been everything that the World Cup in the Caribbean has not,” Atherton said in his column in the Sunday Telegraph.

“With spectators seemingly having riotous fun and the winners to be revealed in just over a week’s time, it has looked like an event to be enjoyed, rather than a marathon to be endured.

“The appetite for Twenty20 is insatiable. I’d certainly lay a large wager that eventually 50-over cricket will be rendered extinct.”

Atherton says the announcement of a lucrative global Twenty20 Champions competition for domestic teams to start in October 2008, could change the priorities for county sides.

Two teams from Australia, South Africa and England will play off against two from the Indian Twenty20 league for a 2.5 million pounds ($5.05 million) purse.

“The knock-on effects of this tournament haven’t been thought through. With a $5 million dollar purse at stake, Twenty20 will sud-denly become the most valuable tournament to win from a county player’s perspective.

“Star players may well be rested from first-class games in order to be fit for the Twenty20 tournament,” Atherton wrote.—Reuters