Inaugural Twenty20 International Starts 17 Feb, 0600GMT

[bevo]

that cover drive was perfect

[Occasional Fan]

Originally Posted by The229club

i,m a traditionalist but the twenty20 concept will have a place on the evidence shown tonight. Huge crowds will go gods will support it and of course its built for TV. The commentators mentioned maybe a match at the start of each tour which I would support, but not a series at this stage.

Other than from the viewpoint of risking damage to critical players, I'd go along with all that. I've never been to a Twenty20 game, but there's no denying that they have been hugely successful in England in bringing people into the grounds, including some who would otherwise never watch the game. However, in England at least, I'm sure we don't need to attract people to international cricket in this way - certainly not if we are playing Australia. We're selling out ODIs and test matches against them already. You had 29,000 people in the ground in Auckland today - more than we can seat in most of the test venues in England. Like it or not, I have to admit: it's here to stay.

[bevo]

yeh it is , but like andrew symonds said " we dont want to get to the point where we have Twenty20 specialists ", just Twenty20 specialists , symonds/gilchrist/cairns and afridi/lara/pieterson would be the top players most suited to Twenty20 , we wouldnt want to have world rankings and player rankings would we , i think thats what will happen , but i predicted that one Twenty20 game before each tour would be perfect , one question are the scores from Twenty20 matches stored , so they might have a Twenty20 average , but i saw that they were showing the ODI scores and averages , that is probably cos they have nothing else ot go by so i was just wondering bout that all day

[Occasional Fan]

There's always a cricket statistician somewhere who will store performance information, Bevo! The Cricinfo site (England page) carries Twenty20 statistics for county level. I would be very surprised if the stats do not soon start appearing for Twenty20 Internationals as well. Whether they are really first-class games will be debated forever, but that doesn't change the fact that statisticians have recorded all sorts of performance information from schoolboy level upwards for the past hundred years or more. Twenty20 will just be another sub-chapter in the statisticians' files.

[bevo]

ok , so i am excpecting that no ones strike rate would be under 100 unless they have a whole heap of ducks added to their tally

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by Occasional Fan

Retro kits, under-arm bowling, Billy Bowden showing red cards. What the heck is all this?

Forget all that, think about this



How the hell did Marshall wear a helmet with hair like that, at one stage I was disapointed I couldn't watch the match live as I had other comitments at that time, but now, after having seen this, I might as well change my mind. What is it with international cricketers? Have they lost all sense of what a decent 'barable to the eye' hair style is? Hopefully, this was only a one off thing he did for the 20-20 game.

[Mr Kiwi]

marshall looked great i thought . . .

not sure if you realise this but to clarify the unofficial NZ cricket supporters club 'the beige brigade' (www.beigebrigade.co.nz) promised any players club 'a lot' of beer if they turned up with retro facial hair. this was extended to 80's perms or mullets for those who weren't able to grow full mo's.

marshall went for the 'fro, others who looked good (bad) were sinclair, and cairns. vettori had also gone all out but wasn't playing. of the aussies kaspar was the only one who made the effort - though dizzy gets in by default . . .

[Zainub]

I'm aware of what the beige bridgade have said. I started a thread on it on the NZ forum too as a matter of fact. I actully looked forward to the facial hair bit, as I am of the opinion that beards look graceful, and everyone should have one, but I think I wasn't quite prepaired of something of this magnitude (just look at the size of his hair, how can he concentrate on his fielding or batting with it being so big bemuses me).

Thank God from the Aussies only Casper made the effort. NZ were more then enough for my liking.

[Junior_Flem]

I loved the game. I thought it was a lot of fun. Serious cricket? No way. Entertainment? Most definitely. And judging by the 30,000 strong crowd, I think it is here to stay. Both captains seemed to endorse it which suggests we will definitely be seeing more of it. I support the idea of starting off a tour with one game but I wouldn't recommend too many matches. It's not good for the skills of players, especially batsmen, although Ponting showed you can do well just playing good cricket shots. What it does do is whet the appetite. I found three hours was not enough. I wanted to see more cricket. In that way, it is a good appetiser for the start of a tour.

As far as the retro look the kiwis were sporting, I thought it was hysterical! Marshall looked like a young John McEnroe it hought! Vettori, although he wasn't playing, won hands down, i thought, for his facial hair. Cairns, an honourable mention. Sinclair looked good and I thought Flem's mo made him look rather dashing!! (He better shave it off tho!!) LOL