| What will the status of the winners be when they | | | | 'World Cup'. |
| emerge victorious from the tournament this month? | | | | The winners will, therefore, claim to be world |
| It might sound an odd question, but think about how | | | | champions of cricket, and the best in the shortened |
| absurd it would be in any other sport. Imagine that | | | | version of the game. But the Australia team that |
| six months after the FIFA World Cup, another | | | | lifted the World Cup in the West Indies a few |
| tournament, also called the World Cup, was played | | | | months ago already claim that title. And 'Twenty20 |
| with pretty much the same teams fielding pretty | | | | world champions' doesn't really mean anything, at |
| much the same players in a pretty similar tournament | | | | least yet: so few T20s are played internationally |
| format with pretty similar viewing figures (both at | | | | (England have played the most in history with a |
| the grounds and on the telly), but with 45-minute | | | | grand total of 6; India have played just 2) that |
| matches rather than the full 90. | | | | no-one will really care. Also, the games are so short |
| I'm not questioning the existence of T20, because I | | | | that a second-rate international team could |
| love cricket, and I understand that this ultra-intense, | | | | conceivably lift the trophy. The flaws in a Zimbabwe |
| short format of the game means people can watch | | | | side could perhaps be papered over for three hours |
| a whole game in an evening after work; it gives the | | | | at a time that would undoubtedly cause a collapse |
| game more appeal, more coverage, more peak-time | | | | over a whole day or more. What if a 'minnow' wins |
| advertising opportunity and hence, more money. It's | | | | the whole thing? They are played so infrequently by |
| also a great spectacle. | | | | the test-playing nations that the 'world champion' label |
| I just think its going to be weird when there are two | | | | will be redundant until they play the tournament again. |
| world champions of cricket. | | | | One solution would be to have an annual or biennial |
| Test cricket is, of course, an altogether different | | | | T20 tournament, outside of which international T20 is |
| kettle of fish; tactics and gameplay are wholly | | | | not played. Then it would be clear that T20, while |
| different from the one day game. The length of time | | | | popular and important, is not of the same caliber and |
| matches take, and the massive possibility of draws, | | | | class as the official cricket world cup, in the same |
| means that a ranking system is the only way to | | | | way that the Six Nations is keenly contested every |
| produce a 'world number one team', whereas 50 | | | | year, but with the winning side not making any |
| overs-a-side lends itself to definite results in the finite | | | | pretensions to overall global superiority. Maybe the |
| time of a tournament. 20-20 is very much like 50-50 | | | | difficulties will disappear as T20 establishes its niche. |
| in its style and ethos: score as many runs as you can | | | | But the simplest solution this time round, to avoid any |
| as quickly as you can; restrict as many runs as | | | | argument or confusion, would be if Australia won the |
| stingily as you can. It, too, can be played in a | | | | danged thing. Doubtless they will oblige. |
| tournament, which is why we have this second | | | | |