eugene wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 10:02 pm
I really wish T20 Cricket would become a traveling circuit like Rugby Sevens with its own players seperate from the more elite 15-man game. Cricket is likely to see the opposite happen if anything, with all the best players traveling the world playing T20 and the rest toiling for their countries.
Much like Eugene, and many others on the forum, I am a ‘purist’ when it comes to cricket so I also believe Test cricket is the best cricket. For me, the parts of the game that have drawn me to it are the stats/ numbers and the pitch.
I love numbers and cricket is a numbers game, I love running my calculator over players averages etc trying to work out how many runs they’d have to score in the next series to lift their averages etc. Players averaging 22 with a strike rate of 150 doesn’t interest me, and t20 cricket doesn’t give me the numbers fix I need, unlike tests and ODIs which have more volume.
For me the ‘magic’ of cricket is in the pitch and the conditions. I love how the amount of grass, moisture and weather conditions can alter the game and change it. I love how a pitch can change throughout a match and change from having something in it for seamers, to flattening out for the batsman before the spinners come into it on the final day

you don’t get that in 3 hours of cricket.
But unfortunately T20 is here to stay and will only get bigger if not regulated by the ICC/ BCCI. But ultimately the BCCI are happy to let the plague that is t20 franchise cricket continuing to spread and kill off their biggest rivals. The more franchise leagues that pop up means more opportunities for players all over the world except for Indian players of course.
Unless the ICC regulated how many different teams one player could play for each year, this is only going to get worse and we will see more countries go the wayside like the Windies where all their best kids dream to play IPL with gold chains rather than wear the famous maroon cap that the likes of Richards, Holding, Marshall and Lara wore.
South Africa have been feeling the pinch for a while, and it will only get worse. For a young white player like Brevis, why would he want to slave away trying to win one of four spots available to a white player in South Africa when he could just take his pay checks and travel the world?
NZ are also entering a concerning phase where players such as Boult, Guptill and Neeshan have knocked back central contracts to become cricket nomads as well.
In saying all this, I do believe t20 cricket is the future for Zimbabwe and unless they see this and start to put a strategy around developing this format, they will ultimately continue to become less relevant.
T20 cricket being a shorter version makes more sense for Zimbabwe for a few reasons. The shorter the contest the more likely of competing and beating the big teams. Shorter format cheaper to host matches and tours, which will make it more appealing for other nations to tour Zim.
Also kids in Zimbabwe can see that becoming a global T20 star is their ticket out of poverty and a way to provide a better life for their families. If Zimbabwe can provide a pathway that these kids can see then we will see more children taking up the game rather than football etc.