CLT20, 2009 : What a freaking innings that was!!!

[Mr. Wicket]

I think you guys are demeaning T20 too much and this format deserves it fair share of respect.

I have respect for it as a format that can bring in casual fans and appeal to those who know nothing about the game, have the attention span of a ADHD video-gamer and get them interested to a minor extent with the fireworks and sparkle that ODIs and tests lack. More than that, I respect the fact that it can be used as a funding tool. That's about it. The rest seems to be idiotic drooling fanboyism from either those people who find it perfect for their limited level of understanding/appreciation for the game, or those people who enjoy elevating players to unwarranted pedestals and poster-boy status, and then find that T20 is the optimal format for such players' limited capabilities.

[The Outsider]

I don't have much against the format - quality T20 matches can be fun. My main beef is against all this sub standard cricket being sold at an exorbitant price. As if the mediocrity of IPL was not enough we now have to sit through the mediocrity of CL!! And then the entire board gets pi$$ed off and starts calling it a lottery format when Pakistan wins the World Cup! That part is really hilarious - we get all worked up and back a league and then don't even qualify beyond the first round at the world stage. Even when competing at the club level all our teams get knocked out before the semi finals. If someone is going to tell me this is anything more than a marketing and money making gimmick then I've got the Brooklyn Bridge to sell.

[Shane]

If I had a player in my SS Team, who made 50 off 18 balls and helped me leapfrog 6 places, why wouldn't I create an appreciation thread. The appreciation of this knock stems from somewhere else. :winky:

[Mr. Wicket]

I don't have much against the format - quality T20 matches can be fun.

But what percentage of T20 matches are "quality", even among the better teams? The number is miniscule. But hardly surprising given that it is a format that encourages and offers a pedestal for mediocrity. Where else will players like Yuvraj, Kieron Pollard and Manish Pandey be celebrated and lauded to the heavens for hitting a few sixes in a 6 ball or 15 minute span? And where else might top quality specialists like Anil Kumble or VVS Laxman find themselves marginalized in favour of a bits and pieces shithouse player like a Robin Uthappa or a bits and pieces joker like Piyush Chawla?

[The Outsider]

But what percentage of T20 matches are "quality", even among the better teams? The number is miniscule. But hardly surprising given that it is a format that encourages and offers a pedestal for mediocrity. Where else will players like Yuvraj, Kieron Pollard and Manish Pandey be celebrated and lauded to the heavens for hitting a few sixes in a 6 ball or 15 minute span? And where else might top quality specialists like Anil Kumble or VVS Laxman find themselves marginalized in favour of a bits and pieces shithouse player like a Robin Uthappa or a bits and pieces joker like Piyush Chawla?

A small percentage admittedly, but watching top notch players jostle it out is still fun to a certain extent - of course doesn't come close to a quality test. But look at the crappola being sold in the name of cricket through IPL and CL - fracking bunch of amateurs getting their day in the sun and signing up for insane amounts of money, all for doing stuff which is the opposite of cricket. Cricket, by the way it has been played has laid a huge emphasis on judgment and what we see today is closer to Baseball - nothing inherently wrong with it, but "It's not Cricket". I watched some highlights of the CL and frankly it was painful to watch Laxman slog and still end up with a SR of 130! This is a guy who has batted against and made bowlers like McGrath and Warne cry in despair! For lundfakeers like Pollard to steel the limelight away from quality cricket is a travesty, but a marketable one.

[Mr. Wicket]

Top notch players jostle it out? I tuned into one of the games in IPL I in hopes of seeing Tendulkar/Warne clash. I think Warne bowled about 6 or 7 balls to Tendulkar at most, and SRT - given the purveyors of crap elsewhere in the attack - chose to just try playing percentage cricket and cashing in against others. Boring, uninteresting stuff to watch. Aside from the blinkered fanboys who'll rise to the defense of T20 cricket now and claim how either Warne/Tendulkar lack the new special skills needed to succeed in this ultra-exciting format or how this format gives us the chance to see so many other such EPIC clashes - I can't see how anyone would prefer that kind of contest to watching a more meaningful encounter between that caliber of batsman and bowler, with both having a little more time to build an innings or set up a trap with the ball.

[The Outsider]

Top notch players jostle it out? I tuned into one of the games in IPL I in hopes of seeing Tendulkar/Warne clash. I think Warne bowled about 6 or 7 balls to Tendulkar at most, and SRT - given the purveyors of crap elsewhere in the attack - chose to just try playing percentage cricket and cashing in against others. Boring, uninteresting stuff to watch.

I was referring to international T20s - which can at times give a genuinely good contest, albeit fleetingly. IPL/CPL are an utter waste of course. In an international T20 if a good attack is bowling then watching the batting side try to manufacture runs can be entertaining (Note - not quality always) at times.

[99.94]

I don't want to take away from him but I seriously don't rate Henriques at all.

[The Outsider]

I don't want to take away from him but I seriously don't rate Henriques at all.

Why not take away from some lappebaaji being done in the name of batting? Why this apologetic tone of "not taking anything away"? If someone cowlashed a sub standard bowler, specially because that bowler was bowled again for the simple reason that at least 8 out of the 20 overs in these kind of tournaments are bowled by utter rubbish bowlers, then why not take away from that performance? Can it even compare to, for example, Kapil Dev scoring a faster than run a ball century against Marshall, Holding, Garner, and Roberts at their home ground? I would say take everything away from bakwaas like this!

[Mr. Wicket]

I don't want to take away from him but I seriously don't rate Henriques at all.

OK, so you're not a member of the New South Wales media who are the only people who seem to rate Henriques really highly. :winky: He has done **** all in domestic cricket so far, very little in club cricket in NSW and yet is being talked up as if he's the lovechild of Alan Davidson and Keith Miller. Ridiculous. BTW, this fella averages almost 40 with the ball in List A and first class cricket! Kieron Pollard averages less than 40 with the bat in f/c, less than 30 in List As, and about 11 runs/inning in ODIs! And people are talking about the clash between them as if it was Viv Richards hooking Dennis Lillee or Vishwanath taking on one of the great WI bowlers! What stupidity.

I was referring to international T20s - which can at times give a genuinely good contest' date=' albeit fleetingly. IPL/CPL are an utter waste of course. In an international T20 if a good attack is bowling then watching the batting side try to manufacture runs can be entertaining (Note - not quality always) at times.[/quote'] True, international T20s can be entertaining. But for the most part I've found them generally formulaic, boring and uninteresting to watch. I followed a decent bit of the World T20 on both occasions and the only really memorable games that stick out were India's match ups against Pakistan in the final and against South Africa in the 2007 edition. On the other hand, I thought the Champions Trophy alone last month provided many more interesting and seriously entertaining contests than International T20 cricket has in its existence.