Coming hot on the heels of the Indian Premier League, the ICC Twenty20 World Cup is bound to take one-day cricket a step forward. The puritans may keep wailing about what it might mean for the classic five-day format, but the wham-bam thing is here to stay.
Before the World Cup got under way, there had been 89 Twenty20 internationals over the last four years; the first such game having taken place on Feb 17, 2005 involving Australia and New Zealand. This roughly means a Twenty20 game every fortnight. And if one adds the games played in the two IPL editions, the total rises to 207 and the frequency to 7.4 days per game.
This is not a bad start at all considering similar data for the two other formats of the game. The first One Day International was played on Jan 5, 1971 between England and Australia at Melbourne. However, the Wisden Cricketers' Almanac of 1972 did not carry a report of this match, as at the time it was thought to have been a one-off arrangement. The 40-over game (eight-ball overs, mind you) was hastily arranged after the fifth Test of the 1970-71 Ashes series was washed out. A crowd of over 46,000 turned up and that established the potential of the format.
Since that fateful day, the world has seen as many as 2,851 ODIs played between various sides, which means a game every fifth day all through the last 39 years.
In contrast, Test matches, having started off way back on March 15, 1877 between England and Australia, have been few and far between; a mere 1,920 games in more than 132 years which means a test every 25 days.
The early debate over the merits and demerits of the Twenty20 are already over and the format has already come much further than many thought it would. What surprises one is the point of origin of the game's version. England, steeped in history and tradition, was the least expected destination in this context. England is the traditional home of cricket and Twenty20 happens to be the most major deviation from tradition yet. But that is not all. It is equally surprising that the format was conceived and perfected in a country whose national team has never been known for its exploits in One Day Internationals.
As happens often, the popularity of games go up and down the ladder in keeping with the performance of the national team. Take, for instance, our own example. Hockey and squash used to be popular games in the country till our national icons kept performing with credit on the global stage. Once the laurels stopped coming our way, the popularity graph started going down. Then came a time where we lost all our titles and the national trophy chest lay bare. The number of people opting for the two games — either as players, spectators or even followers — also nosedived in equal proportions. It happens everywhere.
The Twenty20 format is a huge departure from the norm. It started evolving at a time when England was in the process of bouncing back on the international stage under Nasser Hussain after years and years of wilderness, where the team was nothing but the whipping boy of global cricket. When it comes to the correlation between the performance of the national team and general interest at the level of the masses, this was fine. But this was also the point of departure from the tradition without much tangible reason.
Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan may have done wonders for England, but all their rehabilitation and reinforcement work remained confined to Test cricket, and there was no trickle-down effect on the ODI format wherein the team continued to struggle with its bits-and-pieces players. Regardless of the team's constant and consistent failure to make it happen in the 50-overs format, some mavericks conceived a 20-overs version and started enjoying it. The imagination of the mavericks has fascinated millions and today Twenty20 is a reality that cannot be ignored.
There was much criticism when the ODIs were making their mark, but in the long run, it definitely had a positive impact on Test cricket whose pace improved and there were fewer drawn games that once threatened to bore the crowds away. The Twenty20 will hopefully have the same impact and Test cricket itself will be the biggest beneficiary of it.
