Has Twenty20 found its spiritual home?

[Maranello]

If Test cricket truly comes to life in an English summer at the Lords, or at the Boxing Day match at the MCG; if ODIs are truly spectacular when played in front of 100,000 passionate fans at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, or in front of a mixed Pakistani and Indian crowd at Sharjah; will Twenty20 find its spiritual home at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore?

We have all noticed the excitement and the buzz created by the recently concluded Twenty20 tournament in Pakistan. When was the last time such interest was shown by the Pakistani public in domestic cricket? I have to go back to 1982/83, when the likes of Imran Khan and Zaheer Abbas etc still played domestic cricket and the matches were very competitive due to strong Lahore/Karachi rivalry. But really, the current support for 20/20 surpasses all of that, and is truly unprecedented. Even this pristine purity of W-A-T has not been spared the 20/20 mania, with three of our esteemed Pakistani posters sporting avatars of teams from the tournament.

Pakistani attendances for Test matches has been poor and discussed often here. This is one nation where ODIs are king, and Tests, even between India and Pakistan, are not attended. Hence, 20/20 cricket, where batsmen can play shots on every single delivery, where building an innings is inconsequential, is write up their street. Remember, this is the country, where the Test captain, no less, predicted after his first 20/20 game that this format was the future of all cricket, and Tests and ODIs will eventually be history. Sure, Inzamam is not one of the sages we routinely turn to for guidance on ethical dilemnas, but nevertheless, the big man was truly taken in by this format; and this from a guy who has played 100 Tests, and whose natural game is tailor made to the rigours and challenges of the longer version of the game. Where he led, the rest of his countrymen have followed.

This is a good thing since it revives interest in our domestic set-up, and as ZR points out elsewhere, complements proper cricket. Now, PCB have asked England to arrange a 20/20 international. How long before 20/20 tournaments start eating into our Test schedule? 5 years? 10?

[Maranello]

Apologies to all, I have just found a cricinfo article which makes many of the points I have made above, only much more eloquently:

Tradition be damned. Traditionally, in Pakistan, fewer fans than players turn up to watch domestic cricket. Traditionally, domestic players with little hope of breaking into the national set-up garner little acclaim and less financial security. Traditionally, national-team stars don't turn up for domestic matches. Tradition also says the Twenty20 format is frivolous and trivialises cricket. Last Saturday night, 30,000 people inside Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, around 5000 to 10,000 outside it and many, many more in front of their televisions spat at tradition.

So well, a waste of time for me to write the above post when I could have simply linked to the article. That's one 10 minute slot of my life that will not come back!

And some of the common themes in the two articles are eery; I talk of Twenty20 finding his spiritual home in Pakistan, and all that twaddle about Lords, MCG etc, and what does cricinfo write:

If Lord's is the spiritual home of traditional cricket, then in Pakistan Twenty20 has found a spiritual home.

No, Osman Samiuddin is not my Karachi alter-ego, and nor are we twins. But glad to see my views are finally getting the recognition they have always deserved

Osman's excellent article can be read here. Well worth a read, lots of good stuff about cricket in Pakistan, most of which I wholeheartedly endorse.

[Zainub]

So far so good M.

But I have one question, I don't know why everyone keeps on saying there were only 30,000 people in the stadium that day, Ramiz Raja announced at the presentation that they were 40,000 poeople in there, and that crowd did look like it was 40,000 as well.

Second of all, I can't wait for the tournament to come to Karachi, it will be brilliant, and I can bet on us fetching even more crowds then Lahore (the NSK has a bigger capacity then the Gadaffi after all!).

Third of all, I don't see any reason why in future any 20/20 tournaments start eating into our Test schedule. Not if the organisers and the game's ruling body use any measure of commen sense. As I say a gazzillion times 20Twenty is here to complement NOT substitue (I've got it right this time!) the bigger versions of the game. And it's heart and soul might as well remain in the domestic competetions around the world.

I look forward to the Eng-Pak 20Twenty International, and I hope that it is staged at Karachi. Can I please also request a mascot race for the next tournament, I've been fortunate enough to watch live 20 Twenty Matches from both SA and England, and they have team mascots running around near the boundary edge, entertaining people and having a bit of fun, I think we should bring that along too. Although its rather sad that a Dolphin mascot would most probably lose a race to an Eagle or Lions mascot , even a Zebra mascot for that matter would struggle againt these predatory creatures!

In anycase I do beleive, that despite the unprecedented success of this first tournament there is more room for improvement, especially in the television coverage. I hope the broadcasters next time can care to appoint a few local commentators as well who are more familiar with these players. I'm not saying Ten Sports did a bad job, far from that, but rather just that the quality of the coverage would greatly improve if you had someone like Chisty Mujahid in there, whose radio commentary I'm a massive fan of, and who also regularly comentates for the few Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and Patron's Cup matches that are televised. Also, perhaps there is room for improvement in the actual format as well, rather then the the three way play off that decides the final two team, I'd much rather prefer seeing conventional semi finals with four teams competeing against each other for a place in the final.After the tournament it self being sponsored, the next thing we probably need is individual sponsorships for participating sides, that would help I think. But I guess that will take some time.

ps: I wrote an email few days back to Martin Williamson, the Managing Editor of cricinfo, complaining about the lack of coverage the 20Twenty Tournament got. To my surprise Mr. Williamson replied personally, apoligised saying they were aware that their Pakistan coverage is not as good as it should be, and that they were taking steps to address this. "We have not had a correspondent based in Pakistan for several months", he said, "but have now found someone to fill the void. You should notice marked improvements in the coming months.". I replied back asking if Osman Samiuddin was the correspondent in question, and much more to my surprise he replied again, saying he cannot confirm that, but assured nevertheless that I will notice an improvement.

[Teatime FatCat]

Wow - this is 2020 Avatar-crazy - who's the most talented Pakistan 2020 side guys (ahem ma'm - sorry Zainub) and do you have many recognised names playing in them?

[Shaka]

While it's great to see big crowds in Pakistani stadiums, especially considering the heat, I wish the public would support test matches as well. It's demoralising seeing big series played out in front of empty stadiums. It is going to come as a big shock to English fans when they arrive later this year. Who knows, if the Barmy Army travel they might outnumber the home support. About 15 fans should do it

[Zainub]

I really liked the look of Mohammad Salman - exciting little wicket keeper from Faislabad, Shaka's Faislabad i.e. Keeps very well, and hit a few absolutely gorgeous sixes under pressure in the tournament, bats anywhere from top to middle order.

Then another Faislabad lad that I liked was Asif Hussain, orginally a opener but batted 3 in this competetion, also plays for WAPDA (that's water and power developement athourity), is right handed and has a good temprement - got the Man of the Tournament Award. People reckon he's a Sehwag lookalike - he told Raja in an interview his team mates nicknamed him Vero!

And then there is fellow called Haris Ayaz - first thing you must know about him is that he's bald! So looks funny (to me at least!). Bowls nice off break with an uncomplicated action. Played for the Dolphins.

Teatime, why don't you vivis this www.ncp.com.pk , there you'll be able to find every thing about Pakistani 20Twenty that you can possibly think of - including the logos of all 11 participating teams.

ps: If you plan on supporting anyone, Karachi has got the best supporters in all the world (and Afridi will play for us next year) so support the Dolphins!

[Teatime FatCat]

Wahey! Zainub check out the new Avatar!! and guess what - Inzi's in my team!!

[Shaka]

LOL. I didn't see the Multan Tigers avatar or I could have used that...my dad's from Multan! Ok you can have that one TT, I'll stick with the Wolves and keep my mum happy

[Zainub]

Good luck for next year, I can bet we'll be too strong for you! Although you do have a few very good players, like Shabbir Ahmed, Aamir Basher, and Yasir Arafat - he's suppose to play County cricket I think - can't seem to recall for who.

By the way, just for your knowledge Multan is quite a city, famous for its Shrines and Saints it boast of some of the oldest and most intriguing architectural landmarks in this part of the world, its also famous for an exlusive form Embroidery that's quite popular amogst ladies every where in the country.

[King Aragorn]

Yasir Arafat will be playing for Scotland Saltires, I believe. He's quite an impressive all-rounder.

Inzi didn't play for Multan this time round though!