The Next Step in the T20 Revolution

“Second Slip” (Tim Wray) analyses the state of T20 Cricket in Australia, leading up to the Big Bash league which begins on the 16^th of December.

“Twenty20 Cricket is a Batsman’s game based on luck, premeditation and how far you can hit the ball into the stands.”

During the seemingly endless and hot summers of 2003-2005 I would quite frequently venture to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the NSW Blues play Sheffield Shield. The only problem with this was, I was the only person there. A $1 entry fee to a ground that can capacitate for 46,000 revelling cricket fanatics and yet there would have been 100 at the ground for most matches...at best. With the obvious lack of support and topical interest I suppose, it is obviously made evident that the Premier Domestic Cricket Competition in the world has no television coverage whatsoever due to factors being the “boringness” of watching second rate players play against each other. Personally, I love the Shield matches and think that it does have the best standard of “First-Class” cricket in the world.

From here, Cricket Australia obviously needed to tender to the fact that Sheffield Shield and even the ING Cup had become to “boring” to draw crowds and showcase the future talent of Australian Cricket. With this problem presented, Cricket Australia was able to jump on the Twenty20 cricket bandwagon. The rising popularity in England County T20 competitions and Australia’s few T20 internationals would see the inauguration of the KFC Big Bash. This competition was not an immediate sensation but it certainly started to catch the eye of the public drawing crowds in excess of 15,000 per game and Fox Sports television rights to boot. Now for me, the Big Bash was just starting to really become a sensation within Domestic cricket, rivalries based on Sheffield Shield and what not were starting to become forged in the T20 arena when it was quite suddenly revamped, privatised and up marketed creating the Big Bash League. Personally, I would have kept the Big Bash as it was because it seemed to work so well and players were playing for their own state, and the International players system was working quite well. But after due consideration has been given toward the Big Bash League, I think it has the potential to become a real hit this summer.

First of all, the marketing of the Big Bash League has been superb; I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t see at least 5 advertisements for it with a picture of Shane Warne in his Melbourne Star’s shirt, looking weird with his new facelift. The evidence of this came when I wanted to purchase tickets to a Sydney Thunder game, I could not get the tickets I wanted...almost 1 month out from the game! I was very surprised and also excited that the atmosphere of a T20 game could be great, without International teams playing. I think through the privatisation away from the domestic teams has not been the best of moves but has certainly given the league a chance to expand well and create more opportunities for fans to get to games and to watch them on TV. This venture should certainly entice more people to the cricket in a hope that they will support the game’s main platform.

All in all this makes for some very exciting Cricket to be seen, in a very exciting time for Australian Cricket. I think the BBL will succeed and hopefully lure more international players to our shores in the future. But in saying this, the league also does have some vital downfalls. International Duty and injury has seen many of the “marquee” players not being able to play in most of the games for their team. I know that David Warner will most likely not partner Chris Gayle in a lot of the games due to his Test match commitments. This provides one serious downfall to the competition which needs to be looked at so that the star players can play the games, to fully utilise the power in which this league will bring to showcase exciting cricket and bring more fans to our beautiful game.

T20 still remains the “Crowd grabber” form of the game and I don’t think that it will ever, or should ever be taken as serious as Test and One Day matches due to the batsman dominated and lucky nature of the game. On the 15^th of December, I will be reviewing the teams and predicting who will stand out and who will flop. I believe this will be a good success and bring some very exciting a exhilarating cricket to our shores, especially with David Warner (Hopefully) and Chris Gayle opening the batting for the Sydney Thunder...Go the Thunder!

Second Slip,