How cricket was bowled over by T20
The format that started as ‘a bit of a joke’ enters its 20th season today after changing the game’s landscape for ever
CRICKET’S revolution began with derision, suspicion and a huge wide from Sussex’s James Kirtley. It was shunned by India, only begrudgingly accepted by the counties and hailed as the death knell for Test cricket. But as Twenty20 enters its 20th season, it has grown into cricket’s most important format and changed the face of the entire sport — for better and for worse.
DIFFICULT BIRTH
IN 2002, English cricket needed to replace the poorly attended Benson & Hedges Cup, with county gates across the country down 17 per cent. However, counties and players were wary of an idea led by ECB marketing manager Stuart Robertson for a 20-over cup. Only 11 of the 18 first-class clubs voted for its introduction and, when it began in June 2003, players — in the words of Adam Hollioake, who captained Surrey to victory in the first Twenty20 Cup final — ‘took it as a bit of a joke’.
There was no guarantee T20 would survive for long. Five years earlier, New Zealand had launched ‘Cricket Max’ — two ten-over innings each, with two runs for a wide and goalposts at each end of the ground that counted double if a boundary went through them. Touring sides from England, West Indies and India were lured to take part but it was, ultimately, too much of a fad to take off.
Yet just two weeks after Kirtley’s anticlimactic yet historic first ball in T20 cricket for Sussex against Hampshire, counties were already calling for an expansion the following season. Attendances had quadrupled as crowds warmed to after-work start times and shorter innings to hold kids’ attention spans.
PROBLEM CHILD
NOT all were converts. The early reception for T20 mirrored that which greeted the Hundred last year. Former England captain Brian Close gave this early review in the Guardian: ‘The format does not teach the bowlers anything; it does not teach the batsmen anything. All a batsman needs is a good eye and the ability to slog.’
The impact on red-ball techniques was a common refrain, and anyone who has watched England’s top order in recent years would agree that they have deteriorated.
On the other hand, England’s white-ball boom has been led by a commitment to attacking batting and the ‘360’ approach of being able to hit any delivery to any part of the ground.
The T20 age has led to ‘unconventional’ shots — ramps, laps, paddles, switch hits, helicopters, flamingos, Natmegs and Dilscoops. Without increased batting versatility, would Ben Stokes have been able to produce his destruction of the Australian bowling attack at Headingley in 2019? His innings was the perfect marriage: traditional defensive solidity to be two not out off 66 balls, modern improvisation to bludgeon 133 off the next 153.
Bowlers, too, have expanded their arsenal — focusing on changes of pace, angle and length to deceive batsmen. The ‘every ball counts’ motto has demanded better fielding, with tandem boundary catches a regular feature. Each of these changes have bled into the red-ball game to create arguably a higherquality skillset.
Another prediction was that spinners would die out, rendered useless by flat pitches and a barrage of six-hitting. But by varying their pace, they have become the most valuable asset in a bowling attack. Spinners make up seven of the top ten in the ICC’s T20 world bowling rankings and, in international cricket, have conceded almost a run per over fewer than pace bowlers (6.90 to 7.72), with a better average (22.50 to 24.17).
GLOBAL GAME
KEY to T20’s expansion has been franchise leagues across the globe, with all the major Testplaying nations setting up tournaments that attract the world’s top players.
None of them are quite like the Indian Premier League. It’s astonishing to think now that India were reluctant to adopt T20 for years due to fears over its impact on the 50-over game, and were the only nation to vote against the introduction of a T20 World Cup — the first of which, they won.
Eighteen months later, the first IPL match was played. It has swelled into a behemoth that lasts one sixth of the year and is given an exclusive window away from any international cricket.
The franchises are immensely valuable, at an average of more than $1billion each. At $1.35bn, Mumbai Indians are worth more than all but 12 football teams in the world, just ahead of Atletico Madrid and gaining fast on the Premier League’s Big Six.
Money, however, often brings with it a darker side. English cricket’s first attempt to harness the T20 boom began by getting into bed with Texan tycoon Sir Allen Stanford, who turned out not to be the benevolent friend he claimed to be. He signed a lucrative deal with the ECB in June 2008, was arrested 12 months later and is now serving a 110-year sentence in a Florida prison for fraud.
TEST IMPACT
UNSURPRISINGLY, the T20 generation of Test cricketers play a faster-paced brand of the game than those before them. In the 20 years of T20-era Test cricket compared to the 20 years preceding it, run rates have shot up — 3.23 per over from 2.89 before — and draws have all but disappeared, down from a stable one in three Tests throughout its first 130 years to just one in five since T20 began.
The introduction of a glitz and glamour little brother initially raised fears England’s leading players would snub the traditional game. Or worse, look to turn their backs on English cricket for the Indian Premier League. Luke Wright, whose seven T20 hundreds are the most by an Englishman, was given an ultimatum as a would-be early English pioneer at the IPL.
‘I was in the car one day when I got a phone call from Sachin Tendulkar, asking me to join Mumbai Indians,’ Wright tells Sportsmail. ‘But Ravi Bopara, who was wanted by another team, and I were told that we couldn’t go if we still wanted to be up for international selection. So I turned it down.’
Despite being signed for record £1.1million fees for the second season, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen were provided with just a two-week window to feature in 2009, so as not to compromise Test preparations.
Since then, the landscape has morphed and the ECB have accepted they not only must live with franchise tournaments but embrace them.
STAYING POWER
HAvINg defied its early critics who dismissed it as a gimmick, the format is more dominant than ever, and, led by the IPL, is here to stay. Other new formats such as T10 and the Hundred have drifted in, but T20 remains king as it has struck the balance between entertainment and a universally recognisable, legitimate format. Its impact on Test cricket remains an issue, as does its partnerships with the more murky areas of sports business. But in another 20 years’ time, it may well be that the format that began as a ‘bit of a joke’ is having the last laugh.