Twenty20 Cup Could Revitalise Cricket

The old colonels may be spluttering into their gin and tonics, the "Aaa-just- don't-know-what's-bloody- goin'-on-out-there" brigade may be spitting nails, and traditionalists might be tut-tutting into their yellowing Wisdens but this week cricket launches its new competition, the Twenty20 Cup, and the hope is that the turnstiles will click merrily for the most radical repackaging the domestic game has seen in years.

The format, as the name suggests, is 20 overs per side and bowlers sending down a maximum of just four overs. No slouching when a wicket falls: the new batsman has just 90 seconds to get to the crease or he is timed out, and all 20 overs have to be delivered in just 75 minutes. Start at 5.30pm and it's all over by 8.15. Barbecues on the boundary, karaoke, face-painting and live bands are on offer. Some might say it's dumbing down the dear old game to a preposterous degree. Personally, I think it's great.

After all, just about everyone who has ever picked up a cricket bat and played competitively has turned out in some form of evening league; a bit of wham, bam, thank- you mam and down the pub for half-a-dozen pints afterwards. It may be different but few can deny the fun element and it can be seriously competitive. I would never advocate the approach, but I recall one local Leicestershire pig farmer of some repute arguing the toss over his dismissal so vociferously (a whirling bat aimed at the umpire may have been involved) that he was banned from playing in the county. So don't ever think people don't care.

Whole village communities become involved in the excitement of evening leagues and there seems no reason to me why that same excitement cannot be moved on to the county stage, provided the players approach this competition with due seriousness.

I must confess to having expected to hear more than a little world-weary cynicism from county coaches and administrators about the new format. Maybe some are saying one thing in public, while privately believing something different, but the enthusiasm of the Middlesex coach John Emburey seems typical. He has won honours in all forms of cricket and played 64 times for his country, but Emburey would clearly have relished a chance to have a go at the 20-over game.

"Whether or not I would have been any good at it is another matter, but I'd have tried," he says. "Obviously, the advantage is with the batsman, but as a bowler I would have been trying all sorts of different things. All the bowlers will be having to think about varying their angles and their pace. The slower ball and the yorker will be key deliveries . . . and bouncers, because line and length will be disappearing out of the park.

"One of the matches we have to play is against Surrey at the Oval. I shudder to think how many Alastair Brown might be getting if we don't get him out quickly. He could turn out to be one of the stars of the tournament. But we are really up for this and, talking to other coaches and players around the country, they are all thinking the same.

"I remember back in 1969, when the Sunday league was launched, a couple of old fogeys from the Yorkshire team were saying one-day cricket was rubbish. But how wrong could they be, and they should have known better, especially since they came up through the Yorkshire leagues. I started a couple of years later and loved Sunday league cricket.

"You won't see slogging in this new competition. If you do, they'll just get out. But you will see a lot of great improvised strokeplay and positive cricket, which has to be good for the game."

The Northamptoshire coach Kepler Wessels is another who recognises that the attitude of the players could provide the key to whether or not the Twenty20 Cup is hailed as a success, and says: "They are looking forward to something different after the pressure of four-day matches and it is good to have these sort of matches at this time of the season. The players appear to be taking the idea very seriously, not least because there's some serious prize money.

"I remember playing something similar in South Africa, with six teams playing a competition in one day, starting at 10 in the morning and going into the evening. It didn't suit my style, but the crowd loved it. The players can't afford to take this competition as a giggle, because if they do it will just bomb out. You need the weather with evening matches to get the vibe going, but I could see this doing well."

Cricket's governing body, the England and Wales Cricket Board, is hopeful that a new and younger audience can be attracted to the game. And why not? Anyone who has watched a Test match in Australia will know what can be achieved and there are signs of day-night matches gaining in popularity in the English game.

"When we play under floodlights it has been a great success at Sussex and there is no doubt we are getting a different audience," says the Sussex coach Peter Moores. "The key to our continuing as a viable sport is to get people into the grounds, and it is up to cricket to do whatever is necessary. Kids get bored with a long day, but this is quick and there should be plenty for them to do. The spectator has to be looked after more.

"If everyone goes around saying 20-over cricket will be a flop, and isn't the real thing, then it will fail. So the players have a responsibility to their game to make sure it works. There were a few rumours around that counties might put out sides which are substandard, but I think we will be putting our best team out and I hope the rest will do the same.

"After the pressure of the four-day game, everyone can go out there and give it a rip. It is no coincidence that the Australians dominate their opponents because they play the game so aggressively. They score so quickly, and playing this form of cricket can't harm the development of English players. It has to be a case of everybody looking to embrace the new concept and entertain the public, because that is what it is all about. We are in the entertainment business."

Each county has to play five zonal matches to determine who goes into the semi-finals and final, which will be played at that finest of English Test grounds, Trent Bridge, on July 19. And after a winter when the ECB has been criticised in many quarters for its handling of the Zimbabwe issue, it is time to give credit where credit is due. The Twenty20 Cup is a brave new venture which I believe the public will embrace, not least because of a curiosity factor.

If the matches turn out to be as exciting as Emburey, Wessels, Moores and other coaches would have us believe, cricket might have hit on a winning formula that attracts a new generation of spectators into the sport. And that, even those disbelieving Tykes of years gone by would be forced to agree, has to be a good thing.