Twenty20 comes to India

[rineet]

At last, the Twenty20 craze has reached India. Six teams are competing for the Bradman Unibic Twenty20 cup. They are Bradman World XI, Air India, New South Wales of Australia, Chemplast, Karnataka and Cricket Association of Bengal. There are totally 7 games in the entire tournament that is played from Aug 19-21. All games are held at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore. The Bradman world XI has stars like Dean Jones, Adam Hollioake, Javagal Srinath, M.S Dhoni, Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Romesh Kaluwitharana and Russel Arnold.

Day 1: Air India won both their games beating Bengal and New South Wales. The third game between World XI and Karnataka was washed out due to rain.

[ajithlalm]

It would be wonderful to see Twenty Twenty cricket in India if it was when there were no international games for India and whole team participitating in it. Also, the foreign players should be equally divided into all teams.

[vvvrulz]

It would be ideal for those long 'holidays' the Indian teams seem to take.

[Cliff-UK]

How did the 20/20 go in India? And what were the crowds like, there. What did you and the press make of it? I went to one at the Riverside, Chester le Street in England. I enjoyed it but it was kind of fast and furious, unthinking and a bit dirty. Which can be fun.

[Zainub]

I saw half a match on telly - wasn't any way near as exiciting as the Pakistani or English version - I don't think it was marketed properly.

In Pakistan it was a massive , massive success.

[Cliff-UK]

hi, zainub - how massive was massive? full grounds, press going crazy. what di you think yourself? did cricket need it in pakistan. we certainly needed it here in England.

[Maranello]

Cliff there are some details on Pakistan's Twenty20 competition in this thread: 'Has Twenty20 found its spiritual home'

[Cliff-UK]

thanks. shall read.

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by Cliff-UK

hi, Zainub - how massive was massive?

The following discussions might give you some idea...

Has Twenty20 found its spiritual home?
http://world-a-team.com/showthread.p...wenty+Pakistan
Pakistan vs West Indies: Pre Series Build Up Thread

When the tournament was going on several of regular members of this board were all sporting the mascots of their favorite sides as avatars or profile pictures (including my self)… In Pakistan it self the tournament was being discussed on talk shows on the radio and on telly, people in Karachi and Lahore were talking about how they'd hate to see 'their' side/s to lose to each other, the newspapers carried massive half a page advertisements promoting the tournament, editorials were complaining about the traffic caused out side the Gadaffi Stadium on finals day...it had caught the public's imagination...and that's how massive it was!

full grounds,

Full...they were over full! 40,000 came to watch the finals and hundred more were turned away because there was no more space ... in the league stages too the crowds were always substantial.

press going crazy.

Not exactly crazy...but it was very talked about event nevertheless

What did you think yourself?

G-R-E-A-T!

did cricket need it in Pakistan? We certainly needed it here in England.

Domestic cricket certainly did need a raise in its profile. And 20Twenty did just that!

[Cliff-UK]

Originally Posted by Zainub

Domestic cricket certainly did need a raise in its profile. And 20Twenty did just that!

thanks for the info. and for takign the time to answr my qs. I hadn't joined this little band at the time of those matches so was not tuned in to the events over there. I'm glads it's good for cricket over there. Whyt do you think that cricket has never been quite as popular in Pakistan as in India or Sri Lanka? Or would you dispute that contention? Certianly, traditionally, the crowds ar much smaller in Pakistan than in India. I knwo that Sri Lankan crowds have been pretty low too. even for Tests.