Has Twenty20 found its spiritual home?

[Shaka]

Hell, if you're going to start including grandparents I can claim Indian towns as well! You need to make a choice between Lahore and Rawalpindi Maranello. Or do what most Londoners do and pick the most successful team

I also have relatives in Pindi btw.

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by Shaka

Hell, if you're going to start including grandparents I can claim Indian towns as well!

So can I mate, Jallundur and Delhi to be precise But I actually still have a lot of family around Toba Tek Singh, and my father was born there - hence some relevance for sure.

Most Londoners simply support their nearest half-decent team; now if that has historically been the small matter of 200 miles away, well that's just life...

Cricket wise, it will have to be Lahore for me, with a soft spot for some underdogs like Sialkot.

[Zainub]

Surely we must all be related in some very very very distant way , my ancestors are all also from India, my great grand father is masha allah still alive, in his 90s, and lives in this really big house I've seen pictures of - apparently it also has a name, its called The Bara (12) Dari - the name probably comes with the presence of 12 big arches in the main hall. Incidently, my mom was born in Bahrain, my grand father happened to be serving when she was born (later she was bred in places as diverse as Moratalab (that is in Bihar in India), Memonsingh (that's in B'desh) and finally Pindi and Karachi) ...my dad was also born in Bihar, in this really small indian villiage called Sabzi Baggh (that translates as Vegetable Garden!), but they migrated when he was still small, and was later bred in between Karachi and Islamabad (where he went to study!).

But as said before, I've never left Karachi all my life. So, I'm sticking with the Dolphins.

[Teatime FatCat]

Ah, but are my newly adopted team any good?

[Shaka]

Even if they aren't at least they've got a nice badge

[Zainub]

Seee...that's why I told you to support the Dolphins

[Zainub]

Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad has described the introduction of Twenty20 cricket in the country as a detrimental step for the future of Pakistan cricket.

"This is not cricket. It is a circus and if we lay too much stress on it at the domestic level it is going to have detrimental effect on our future generation of players," he warned on Wednesday.

Pointing out that Pakistan was already struggling in producing quality players who are well aware of the requirements of top level cricket, he advised the Pakistan cricket Board (PCB) not to give too much importance to Twenty20 cricket.

"They introduced this form of cricket in England because of financial requirements. I don’t think the Pakistan board has any financial problems that it should need to introduce Twenty20 type of tournaments in our domestic calender."

""Maybe one tournament in two years is okay for entertainment value but it should not be made a permanent fixture of the domestic circuit," he added.

He said that Twenty20 cricket would neither improve the player’s techniques nor prepare them for Test or One-day International cricket.

"It could end up destroying the confidence of the bowlers who are always going to be at the receiving end in this format and convert batsmen into slam bang cricketers. Pakistan is already short of quality batsmen who can graduate to the international level and adjust accordingly because there has been a dearth of three-day and four-day cricket at the inter-school and club levels. In the domestic tournaments the quality needs to improve in the regional tournaments."

Miandad, who has remained captain and coach of the Pakistan team since his retirement after 124 Test appearances, pointed out that most of the former players and countries had rejected the Twenty20 cricket because it was a style of play which went against the puritanical spirit of the game.

"What techniques do you expect batters to develop in Twenty20 cricket? The quality of cricket witnessed in the recent tournament was appalling," he noted.

Miandad said he had been forced to come out with his views fearing the future of Pakistan cricket because of the many reports indicating Twenty20 cricket could become a permanent fixture in domestic cricket and after listening to the comments of the commentators on television promoting this format of the game.

...I'll not comment beyond saying that I do not agree.

[Captain]

I don't know, JM is making a good point about the quality of our player, especially in tests, even if we beat India and drew the series in India, it still has not made up for what happened in Aussie land and before that agains Sri Lanka. The Lankans beat us in the first match comprehansivly(sorry about the spelling,I "suck" at it), and it took that defeat to rouse us from sleep, we can't have players go into the test arena and make 100 off 25 and get out, you have to occupy the crease, look at the aussies if they wanted they could do 100 off 25 and leave, but they don't they occupy the crease, thats whats gonna win matches. And the only players who have done that for us consistently(of late) are Asim Kamal, Yousuf Yohana Shoaib Malik and Inzimam. The others go out and try to make quick runs. I must say that we are improving so some credit to our players.

ps. I can claim Indian heritage too, my grandfather was born in India(before partition).

[Zainub]

Pakistan has been suffering from the problem you mention for years Captain, the number of proper batsmen with proper techniques we have produced in the last 5 years or so is probably half as compared to the no. of over zealous over stroke playing bashers / pinch hitters we have produced...this is a problem that begins not with 20Twenty cricket but generally a)the amounty of one-day cricket we play b)the type of pitches our domestic players play on ...

I simply cannot see why a tournament that will barely last a week (from an entire season, just 5 beautiful days) should have any drastic affect on any player, bowler or batsmen! I'm not exactly sure how this could have any dramtic affect on the player's technique...for the vast majorrity of the time first class cricketers at least if we leave out international players from this debate for a while will be supposeed to play normal cricket. And its not like playing normal authentic cricket strokes in a banned in 20Twenty, there were plenty of them hit in this tournament too. Some players are just not built physically for powerful slogs ala Flintoff and Afridi, even in a format of the game as brief as 20Twenty they will rely on their authentic cricket shots and still be pretty successful (as I personally recall from seeing the success of few players in this particular tournament)

It is pointless to argue 20Twenty is perfect, nothing is perfect, everything has its pros and cons, but more then anything what 20Twenty gives to cricket (around the world, not just in this country of mine) is a much needed rise in the profile of the domestic game - that one reason alone for me is convincing enough to be a fan and adirer of this game. A strong domestic structure will always lead to a strong international team. You just talked lamented the fact that very few pakistani batsmen have in the recent past done well for us consistently. It comes as no surprise to me why several of our younger players [unless they are innately strong mental fitness wise (like Butt)] struggle under pressure at the highlest level ...when you are not used to facing pressure ...you will obviously struggle..so when these players in our domestic sides go and out and play infront of big crowds with a lot of expectation on their back it is a massive learning exercize for them ...and that can't be bad. Can it be? Yes, some of these players, who are young might pick up the odd bad habbit or two, but by and large, if someone is sensible enough, he should be able to adapt.

[Shaka]

Your points are well made Zainub but (shock horror!) I can understand where Miandad is coming from for a change. It's easy for any player to get loose with his technique when they are looking to slog every ball. You only have to look at Afridi...since his comeback into the international side he has started to use his head just a bit more now and is making runs more consistently as a result.

Fine if this form of cricket is only for one week in the year, but with Pakistani supporters already deserting test cricket for ODI's it wouldn't surprise me if this new form of fast food cricket doesn't grow spectacularly, and if it does something will have to give. ODI's have spelled the end of test cricket as a spectator sport in Pakistan...don't rule out what effect Twenty20 might have down the line.