In an attempt to broaden the appeal a new, shorter, sharper, and to many minds shallower version of the game was created: Twenty20. Matches could be finished in hours, not days, and both runs and wickets were expected to flow as teams set and chased quick-fire targets.
To say that the idea was a success would be an understatement. Fans flocked to matches, lucrative TV deals were signed, and the format was exported around the globe, most notably to India, where it was welcomed with typical panache and fanaticism.
The Impact of Twenty20 on Test Cricket
The financial security of the game was, at a stroke, assured. But all was not well at the home of cricket. Twenty20 had been accepted - or at least tolerated - as a rather silly little sideline which brought in the cash, but now it was threatening to take over, challenging the popularity of the highest form of the game: the Test Match.
The traditionalists rebelled. Mocking Twenty20 as a ‘hit and giggle’ event. A brief festival of slogging and rushes of blood to the head, incomparable to the Test Match and its unique demands on technique and concentration.
The point is valid. It would be unforgivable if the custodians of the game - the fans as well as the officials - allowed Test cricket to wither, for it is aptly named, and should remain the ultimate test of a cricketer. The crucible in which his skill and will are put on trial. But it does not need to be the only form of cricket, and now may be the time for it to learn to share the limelight.
The Test has somehow come to be regarded as the natural, or proper form of the game. But even Test cricket itself was not played until 1876 - perhaps 300 years after the inception of the sport.
Cricket, whatever the dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists would like to believe, is as susceptible to change as any other sport. If it were not, then bowlers would still be bowling underarm at batsmen guarding two stumps. The laws, as laws will do, have evolved and expanded, the LBW rule being a case in point. Players, sometimes aided by these changing laws, have developed new techniques and variations. The march of technology and sports science have impacted on cricket as much as on any other game.
Innovations from Twenty20 Cricket
Nobody wants to see cricket become as fickle and fiddly as Formula One, with annual rule changes and constant tinkering with formats and regulations, and long may change for changes sake be resisted. But Twenty20 genuinely has something to add to this venerable game.
The challenges may differ from those in a Test Match, but when played at the highest level, the skills on display in Twenty20 demand respect. Big hitting has its place, especially during the opening and closing overs, but proper shots reap greater dividends than wild swings, and a good batsman must know how to pace an innings, particularly if early wickets fall. In the middle overs creativity is far more important than raw power. A player with a wide range of shots who can pick off singles all around the ground is more useful than a compulsive slogger.
Bowlers must also have a comprehensive armoury. Simply bowling a good line is unlikely to confound a truly top first class opponent, so a variation of pace and length are vital. The inswinging yorker is a much prized weapon for a quick bowler, but so to is the innovative slow bouncer. Spin bowlers, who at the dawn of Twenty20 looked obvious targets for attack, keep scoring rates low through guile alone - a point hardly consistent with the derogatory term ‘hit and giggle.’
The Future of Cricket?
Some of these skills may transfer themselves into the Test arena, as many aspects of the fifty over game have done, even improving the ‘ultimate’ form of cricket, increasing scoring rates and revolutionising fielding. But even if this is not the case Twenty20 has provided a much needed fillip, has given a chance for newer cricketing nations to cause shocks that would never be possible over five days, and has brought the game to a wider audience. These are good things. They are also unavoidable if cricket is to survive. The time has come for the traditionalists to accept Twenty20.
