Love it or leave it but Twenty20 is just cricket

It’s just not cricket say the old guard. A new kind of cricket has exploded on the scene after one-day internationals, night cricket, now the Twenty20 version of cricket is here, the first tournament being played in South Africa.

Twenty20 cricket is three hours long; fast-scoring and there are baseball-style cheerleaders to encourage players. Twenty20 cricket has made the old fashioned purists shudder but the young are cheering.

In a ceremony attended by Indian cricketers Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble the BCCI launched it’s Twenty20 league on Thursday.

It’s partly a response to the ICL – but with the backing of the ICC and all the test playing nations of the world, the Indian Premier League already looks like a runaway hit.

With this the event is drawing unprecedented rates for advertisements. Advertisements for certain matches, such as India versus Pakistan scheduled on Friday, are already going for more than Rs 3 lakh for a 10 second slot.

Game or marketing gimmick?

Former India cricketer E A S Prasanna, Latika Khaneja Director, Collage Sports Management and cricket enthusiast Gopal Jain discussed the issue on Face The Nation with Sagarika Ghose.

The initial result of the poll suggested that yes 71 per cent of the people are saying Twenty20 cricket is indeed a marketing gimmick and only 29 per cent denied saying no.

Talking about the Twenty20 series, Prasanna said, “This Twenty20 has taken little bit of a different step all together because of the fact that it is an entertainment based investment against returns and there is lot of technicalities in this game as well.”

“Yes there is little bit more than artistry actually because batting looks simpler but it is the bowlers who have to work extremely hard to curtail the young slut of the batsman.”

But is it that young people watch test cricket rather than Twenty20 cricket?

Rocking Twenty20 lights up cricket world

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — If proof was needed that Twenty20 cricket was dramatic, spectacular and a crowd puller, look no further than the ongoing world championships in South Africa.

The inaugural tournament has provided more thrills, excitement and stunning results in two days of competition than what the entire 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean earlier this year did in six weeks.

West Indian Chris Gayle smashed the first-ever Twenty20 century in Tuesday’s opening game, but that was not enough to secure victory as South African Herschelle Gibbbs hit 90 off 54 balls to see the hosts home.

In the next match in Durban on Wednesday, New Zealand’s Mark Gillespie returned the best figures in the format, taking four for seven in 2.5 overs as Kenya crashed to a new low total of 73.

Later the same evening in Cape Town, Zimbabwe created a cricketing tsunami with a shock win over the game’s undisputed leaders Australia that left Ricky Ponting’s champions on the brink of elimination.

Australia, who won their third successive World Cup title in April, must defeat in-form England at the Newlands in Cape Town on Friday to avoid an early flight home.

South African fans, who whole-heartedly support their own team or anyone that plays against Australia, are gripped by sporting fever not seen here since the 1995 Rugby World Cup which the hosts won.

Crowds flocked to both the night games so far in Johannesburg and Cape Town and organisers expect full houses for all matches in the Super Eights round which starts on Sunday.

Even old-timers, who still regard Test cricket as the ultimate cricket contest, are enjoying the spectacle.

“It’s quite exciting, isn’t it?,” said Johannesburg resident Johan Smidt, 61, who went to Tuesday’s opener at the Wanderers.

“For me, Test cricket is the real thing but I suppose they can’t do without the limited-overs game because it brings in the money.

“If there has to be limited-overs cricket, why don’t they play only Twenty20? Those 50-over games are so insufferably boring.”

Former England captain and commentator Tony Greig said the shortest version of the sport was here to stay.

“I certainly see an impact in a playing sense,” Greig told a Cricinfo discussion.

“We’ve seen the dramatic changes in the way Tests are played as a result of the traditional one-day internationals – it’s strange to be using the word “traditional” to describe one-day cricket isn’t it?

“But the big change lies is in what the public wants. I think they are looking for cricket to provide them with a quicker fix.”

Even Asian team will soon realise that there is more to Twenty20 cricket than just a hit-and-giggle outing.

Asia, cricket’s financial backer, has organised more one-dayers than any other region, but India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been so reluctant to embrace Twenty20 cricket that they have yet to host an international match.

Domestic Twenty20 cricket was introduced in England in 2003 to boost dwindling viewership. Indian officials say cricket-mad Asian nations have never faced such a problem.

Cynics, however, blame the lack of interest on commercial reasons. After all, a full-scale one-day international allows 100 overs of advertising breaks as opposed to just 40 overs for a Twenty20 game.

All that could change at the end of the two-week world championships. Twenty20 cricket rocks. Ask the fans.

Roger Federer to play Pete Sampras in exhibition match

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Tickets go on sale this week for an exhibition match in November between top-ranked Roger Federer and tennis great Pete Sampras.

The Nov. 22 match is being touted as the professional comeback of former world No. 1 and 14-time Grand Slam winner Sampras, by challenging Federer who has 12 Grand Slam titles including last weekend’s U.S. Open, organizers said Thursday.

The night match will be played in the 12,000-seat Malawati Stadium at Kuala Lumpur on a medium speed indoor carpet.

“Roger is a true class act. He is obviously a great player but his manners on and off the court set him apart just as much,” Sampras was quoted in a statement released by the organizers Entertainment Group Limited and First Events Promotions.

Federer and Sampras have played only once before in an ATP match, when Federer won a five-set duel 7-6 (7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2001.

“He is a true gentleman of the sport of tennis and I am very much looking forward to playing him in Kuala Lumpur. I have been preparing for the match very seriously and I will definitely be up to the task by then,” Sampras said of Federer.

Federer said he and seven-time Wimbledon champion Sampras practiced together earlier this year at Sampras’ home in Los Angeles.

“Although I will not get into who won the practice tiebreakers and sets we played, I will say that the tennis was of very high quality,” he said.

The Federer-Sampras match is one of three events comprising the Malaysia Independence Tennis Festival. The other event is a challenge match featuring world No. 2 and three-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal on Nov. 20 against Wimbledon semifinalist Richard Gasquet of France.

The third element of the tennis festival is the ATP Challenger Series that will be held in Kuala Lumpur from Nov. 17-25.