Twenty20 vision

The International Cricket Council's (ICC) third World Twenty20 tournament bowls off in the eastern Caribbean this weekend with the popular abbreviated version of the game in a growing state or crisis.

You see, the annual flagship event of this type of wham-bam-thankya-ma'am cricket - the Indian Premier League (IPL) - has been caught in a whirlwind of allegations about match-fixing, money laundering and other financial improprieties which are swirling faster and faster around its enigmatic former commissioner Lalit Modi, the owners of the franchises, some of its players and even media commentators.

It's ugly, folks, and it's just gonna get worse because Modi, who apparently was at the front of the queue when they were giving out arrogance, has vowed to not go down without a fight.

So, there you have a tremendous lead-in to what is supposed to be the World Cup of cricket for players who don't like to spend all day out in the hot sun (let alone five!) and fans who believe fast-forwarding the game, or at least giving it lots of caffeine, is the best way to speed up a sport that was, by design, always meant to be played at a leisurely pace.

Don't get me wrong, I like all forms of cricket and Twenty20 (T20) is ideal for guys like me now who still think we can turn the ball more than Shane Warne and hit it farther than Chris Gayle without having to labor in the field all day and then spend a week or two in intensive care as our creaking knees are reassembled.

T20 has also exposed and attracted a younger generation of fans to the game who otherwise may be playing basketball or baseball or their play stations.

Still, for a boring old purist like me, T20 - as exciting as it can be - doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know about the game, or those who play it.

It's basically a batting slugfest, which can be won by a singular good performance on any given day.

Looking at this year's 12-team field you can only safely discount the chances of Ireland, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Cinderella side Afghanistan although all are capable of winning at least a game in this format.

So, that leaves the eight Test-playing nations and a pick-a-name-out-of-a-hat situation.

India and flighty Pakistan have won the two previous installments of World Twenty20 and the featherbed pitches of the West Indies will certainly suit their batting and bowling attacks.

The hosts, Sri Lanka and New Zealand are maverick picks while South Africa and England chronically underachieve on the international stage and world one-day champions Australia have gone out of their way to pick a bowling attack and skipper ill-suited for this form of the game.

Some side has to win, so I'll put my 20rmb down on India. However, I'll be more interested to see how the game plays out back in that country between Mr Modi and the Indian cricket board. That battle will have greater consequences than any in the Caribbean over the next few weeks.

Tym Glaser is a sports copy editor who used to bat slow and bowl fast now it's the other way around. Contact him at tymglaser@hotmail.com

(China Daily 05/01/2010 page22)