Will Stanford steal the show?

The Australian thinking has been to involve their national players, who incidentally broke the world record for the highest runs by a team this month, may be correct in their decision since they have proven that they are competent at the new innovation, and will probably give preference to their national caps with some new faces joining in.

Allen Stanford and cricket! A bit of a surprise, and the first impression was what is an American trying to do to cricket? Now that he is involved with his billions the 20/20 cricket will be his study pack for the future.

This man has definitely hit the jackpot with his plans for the 20/20 game. What better man could he have chosen to be his taskmaster for the project other than Mike Haysman? Mike himself a fine cricketer during his hay day and now as promoter of this brand of cricket will hit it off well. His experience as a broadcaster and an innovative one at that would stand in good stead for what he intends to do for the shortest version of cricket or better called instant cricket.

Mike Haysman always took a different approach while doing his broadcasts and never forgot the ones who really mattered, the cricket enthusiast. He would be seen walking around the grounds speaking to the crowds and getting their candid opinions while play was in progress. Watching him was a sheer joy, and he was seen doing the same at the recently concluded 20/20 tournament in the West Indies, which incidentally was a great success, that would have been the motivation for Allen Stanford was looking for to go ahead with getting fully involved with this brand of cricket.

Cricket as you know is the most time consuming game on earth, and nobody bothered to do something about it until Kerry Packer. Being on both sides of gambling was what made him think of the shorter version, which he knew would be the more attractive to the enthuse who was a risk taker. He incidentally happened to have as his major domo another South African none other than Tony Grieg, these Proteas have a flare for good thing, you can see that in Tony while in the box doing his thing and suddenly and tastefully see the beauty of not only the game but some of the crowds especially the females. Somehow, what they together promoted has become a thing that would take cricket out of its doldrums and move it to another level.

Since the catching on went well with the OD’s, what Stanford has in mind may be even far exceeding that with 20/20’s. Stanford who with his knowledge of business, and he has a lot invested in the Caribbean, wanted to do something for the West Indian cricketers according to Haysman. His ideas did not have a plain sail but had a bumpy beginning, which came from the quarters of the administrators who split up due to disagreements over the rushing of matters with regard to promotion which came with a wrong timing. From the looks of on going matters, Stanford with his connections have managed bigger things than what he expected to do with the West Indies as a base.

Presently with Miami as the base cricket is closer to having its dream of the American connections come true. This will be real dream come true. We are aware that cricket was doing quite well in the US, and has fallen out of grace for sometime. Stanford’s move will be the move of the millennium for cricket as a whole and the best way to promote it there. That’s two in one, and may be the sounding off of the future of this fast game, and could be a set back for baseball if all goes well for cricket.

According to the man who is promoting the game for Stanford, Mike Haysman says this is a game with no hidden agendas, and that is good news. However you cannot keep a pack of Hyena’s from a killing even though it may belong to the king of beasts, so will be the 20/20 game attracted to the bookies. Betting probably can go on without match fixing because of the shorter duration of this game. It’s almost as if there will be no time to think of on what to bet.

The games will be so open that you would not have to depend on stars, but skills will one heck of an importance. In short it is the purest form of cricket as described by Haysman due to the expectations from those involved in playing rather than administrators. We will see more of talented all-rounders in demand for this type of game who can think on their feet. It will depend more on the skills of that nature rather than on a combination of bowlers and batsman. That is the attraction it will have on the Americans who are presently involved in baseball which has similarly stratagem. May be they will conquer the crown of 20/20 cricket in time to come.

Lanka Guardian spoke with Duleep Mendis the Chief Executive Officer of Sri Lanka Cricket to find about their plans for the 20/20 World Cup and promoting that form of the game locally. He is of the opinion too that 20/20 defers from the one day game, and that Sri Lanka will start a 20/20 national tournament this year. That will decide the players who will go to South Africa for the World Cup. According to Duleep we can field a good side with prospects to do well at the World Cup.

The Australian thinking has been to involve their national players, who incidentally broke the world record for the highest runs by a team this month, may be correct in their decision since they have proven that they are competent at the new innovation, and will probably give preference to their national caps with some new faces joining in.The future looks bright for this game, however way you look at it because it is not something only the players are going to enjoy, the crowds too would love to watch 20/20 cricket.