Twenty20 Cricket

[Steve-O]

Anyone watch this? I am currently watching NZ v Australia.

It's pretty entertaining, would defo recommend for someone that has never really watched cricket and still thinks of it as boring and complicated. It's an easy way to get into cricket for the uninitiated...:agree:

NZ are currently 158/5 after 15.5 overs...

[Steve-O]

New Zealand finished on 214...really high for Twenty20, and Brendon McCullum hit 116 not out, one off the highest score EVER in Twenty20! Some crazy shots too and many people saying it's one of the best display's they've seen.

Probably the best I've seen, but then I've not watched cricket for that long...

[Steve-O]

Ended up being one of the most entertaining games I have ever seen!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/3386807/Brendon-McCullum-clubs-Twenty20-century :thumbsup:

[Bayern Bru]

Much as I love cricket, Twenty20 just makes me cringe. As you insinuated, it's been engineered to try and convince people that cricket isn't boring...that said, I'd still rather take in a 5 day test at Old Trafford than a Twenty20 game. :wink:

It's just not cricket....
:duck:

That said, if it's two good teams like NZ and Aus then I could be persuaded to have a sneaky wee watch!
:greengrin

[Calvin]

I love Twenty20 and ODIs.

Hate test cricket.

[Marabou Stork]

Shortened forms of cricket are for the kids. Nothing from a T20/ODI can match the tension in the last day of a test to decide the series.

Basher Mccullum is a monster in T20 though. He's hit a fair few big scores in limited overs.

[Steve-O]

Shortened forms of cricket are for the kids. Nothing from a T20/ODI can match the tension in the last day of a test to decide the series.

Basher Mccullum is a monster in T20 though. He's hit a fair few big scores in limited overs.

What about the first 3-4 days though...:yawn:

I went to the first day of a test in Sydney a couple o years ago...all very well but sitting about for 8 hours and not even getting a result at the end was pretty frustrating...

Much prefer Twenty20, but I guess it depends on when you got into cricket.

I'd much rather see guys blasting 6's than hitting singles for about 3 hours on the trot.

[--------]

Oh dear - Test Cricket versus Twenty20 again?

Twenty20 is a promo game, basically - designed to get folks who don't play of understand the long version of the game into it. It can be quite entertaining if, as Leitrim says, you get two GOOD teams really going at one another, but usually it's pretty pathetic and trivial.

A minor skirmish as opposed to the pitched battles of Test cricket.

Test cricket is THE game. The match develops over five days; there's time for individual contests to develop within the wider panorama of the match, and the levels of skill and concetration (and courage) involved are epic in comparison to the Twenty20 quick fix.

I might take kids to Twenty20 - suits their shorter attention-span?

But as one learns as one gets older - the deepest and most profound pleasures are best savoured without haste or urgency. So much of the best of life has its roots in expectation savoured, the slow crescendo, the almost painful, yet deeply fulfilling resolution of all one's deepest ....

Erm. We ARE talking about cricket, right?

[LiverpoolHibs]

Absolutely dreadful, *******ised, dull as ditch-water, non-sport.

Limited overs actually has certain things going for it that four and five day cricket doesn't (even if it's still **** in comparison), but even that those elements are removed when it comes to Twenty20. It actually manages to remove every single thing that's interesting, captivating and great about cricket in a desire to be more interesting and captivating; that's quite a feat.

Such desperate, try-hard, 'look-at-me' nonsense.

[Hank Schrader]

Marabou Stork, Doddie and Liverpool Hibs are spot on as far as I am concerned. Any televised Cricket in this country can be ranked in order of importance as follows;

Test matches
50 over ODI's
County Championship
Pro40
International T20
Inter County T20

There is still no IPL TV deal struck for the UK for the 2010 competition. I am not too bothered about that to be honest, I really don't think I would miss it. Test Cricket is the true test and should always be viewed as the ultimate challenge in the sport. Regardless of how much they go on about slow bowlers dominating T20 its still a batsmens game.

[Marabou Stork]

Marabou Stork, Doddie and Liverpool Hibs are spot on as far as I am concerned. Any televised Cricket in this country can be ranked in order of importance as follows;

Test matches
50 over ODI's
County Championship
Pro40
International T20
Inter County T20

There is still no IPL TV deal struck for the UK for the 2010 competition. I am not too bothered about that to be honest, I really don't think I would miss it. Test Cricket is the true test and should always be viewed as the ultimate challenge in the sport. Regardless of how much they go on about slow bowlers dominating T20 its still a batsmens game.

The IPL is being streamed live on youtube.

Fully agreed with the order of importance of cricket though.

[Calvin]

I agree that test cricket is the true form of cricket. However, that doesn't make it less boring. During the Ashes this year, I made an effort to fully watch a full test, but just couldn't.

The last day, when the players know what the situation is and what needs to be done to win is exciting, but with ODIs and T20 you cut out all the crap and jump to the exciting bit.

I just don't understand how hitting 4 off an over repeatedly is better than hitting 20 off an over repeatedly.

Was it Sachin Tendulkar that said there was no future in test cricket? I for one agree with him.

[Hank Schrader]

The IPL is being streamed live on youtube.

Fully agreed with the order of importance of cricket though.

I did see that but they are still trying to thrash out a TV deal in the wake of Setanta going tits skywards. I read somewhere this week that a deal was unlikely.

My internet connection at home is slow as treacle, I'll be struggling to watch it on Youtube without having a hairy fit with it stopping and starting all the time!! :grr::greengrin

[Hank Schrader]

Was it Sachin Tendulkar that said there was no future in test cricket? I for one agree with him.

I'd be astonished if Sachin Tendulkar, the leading test runmaker the game has ever seen, would come out with something like that.

And I reckon T20 cricket will die a death before test cricket. The novelty will wear off.

[LiverpoolHibs]

I agree that test cricket is the true form of cricket. However, that doesn't make it less boring. During the Ashes this year, I made an effort to fully watch a full test, but just couldn't.

The last day, when the players know what the situation is and what needs to be done to win is exciting, but with ODIs and T20 you cut out all the crap and jump to the exciting bit.

I just don't understand how hitting 4 off an over repeatedly is better than hitting 20 off an over repeatedly.

Was it Sachin Tendulkar that said there was no future in test cricket? I for one agree with him.

Whoa, not a chance.

Chris Gayle and Kevin Pietersen have made comments amounting to that - and for hilariously obvious reasons - but not Tendulkar.

On the penultimate paragraph, the point is that Twenty20 reduces cricket down to that sort of thinking. Longer form cricket isn't, never has been and never should be about how many runs are hit off an over. Its myriad complexities are what makes it so great, and their removal what makes Twenty20 so appalling.

[Hank Schrader]

The only reference I can see with regards to the death of Test Cricket is the current comments of IPL chief Lalit Modi. His latest ramblings include saying that if Test Cricket doesn't move to day/night format then it will disappear.

Hardly a surprising statement given that he is the man behind the IPL "revolution", a tournament worth millions. I wonder if his tournament will have the same appeal if the international stars go ahead with their threat to pull out over security fears?

Test Cricket may go day/night at some point in the future (hopefully not with those awful looking pink balls :bitchy:) but there is no danger it will disappear at the expense of some two bit version of the game that, as Liverpool Hibs says, removes all of whats good about Cricket.

[--------]

I agree that test cricket is the true form of cricket. However, that doesn't make it less boring. During the Ashes this year, I made an effort to fully watch a full test, but just couldn't.

The last day, when the players know what the situation is and what needs to be done to win is exciting, but with ODIs and T20 you cut out all the crap and jump to the exciting bit.

I just don't understand how hitting 4 off an over repeatedly is better than hitting 20 off an over repeatedly.

Was it Sachin Tendulkar that said there was no future in test cricket? I for one agree with him.


No, it wasn't.

As LH says, one or two Test players have - mainly because the organisers have been paying them to do so. Pietersen in particular gives me the impression he's strangle his granny if someone would just sponsor him with enough dosh. Appalling man.

I can't put it any better than Liverpool already has: "On the penultimate paragraph, the point is that Twenty20 reduces cricket down to that sort of thinking. Longer form cricket isn't, never has been and never should be about how many runs are hit off an over. Its myriad complexities are what makes it so great, and their removal what makes Twenty20 so appalling."

Cricket has always used gimmickry to make money and attract new fans. I myself began watching the old John Player League matches on BBC2 back in the 1970's (40-over limited innings games) but very quickly realised that the real game was TEST cricket - "myriad complexities" is the word.

Twenty-20 is gimmickry, nothing more. Something to get the punters in, raise a bit of cash.

If Test cricket's doomed, how on earth does it draw the crowds it does? They're not all staggering in and out of the beer-tent dressed as penguins.

Most of them are engrossed in one of the most fascinating games ever invented.

[Calvin]

Yeah sorry, it wasn't Tendulkar of course.

"On the penultimate paragraph, the point is that Twenty20 reduces cricket down to that sort of thinking. Longer form cricket isn't, never has been and never should be about how many runs are hit off an over. Its myriad complexities are what makes it so great, and their removal what makes Twenty20 so appalling."

I suppose it just depends what you're looking for from a sport. I like the premise of cricket but prefer the thrill of chasing a target - the myriad complexities have their merits but I don't have the patience for them I think.

Really, they are two different games, and the T20 'gimmick' has certainly worked, as before the first IPL I had never taken a single look at cricket in my life, now I am very interested in it. I think I'll give test cricket another go. As for the crowds, when I was at Headingley for a test the other year, it certainly seemed that everyone was there just for a beer in the sun, but it was against South Africa so maybe the Ashes brings more interested observers. To be honest, most of us couldn't even see the ball!

[Steve-O]

I don't like Test Cricket because if it goes from Friday through to Mon / Tuesday I can't even watch the final day due to work!

The ODI's between NZ and Australia have been pretty good so far too, I think I will be going to the one here in Wellington next Saturday :agree:

There is a test a week after but not sure I will go because I can only go on Saturday and Sunday and like I say, won't even be able to watch the final day so what's the point?

[Hank Schrader]

For anyone interested on the shorter forms of the game, ITV4 will be showing the IPL matches live from Friday afternoon.

[Calvin]

For anyone interested on the shorter forms of the game, ITV4 will be showing the IPL matches live from Friday afternoon.

Excellente, come on the Knight Riders!

[Hank Schrader]

Excellente, come on the Knight Riders!

More of a Rajasthan Royals man myself :cool2:

Mon the Shane Warnes!!