Twenty20 Vs Tests

As I blissfully watch Derbyshire vs Yorkshire in Twenty20. My mind wanders in to an everglaze of ‘Twenty20 or County Four Day Matches?’. I’ve always been a traditionialist via Cricket and that it’s all about test and county four day matches rather than the shorter format of the game. I will blissfully watch these Twenty20 matches if there is no other Cricket on the television, however if there was a 50 Over match I would contently watch it.


I, personally, find that there is little effort required in the Twenty20 game as it’s more of a batsman’s paradise rather than a bowler’s game. 80 percent of the man of the matches are batsmen with their stiffling and their boom boom like innings what helped win the match. I understand the counties and ECB’s mentality:


* Get as many people in to the sport as we can and develop them from there.
* The County Grounds are not filling up in a county test match.
* The amount of money and investment that can be made in Twenty20 is extorshinate.
* The success of the IPL is phenomenol and England would like to recreate that in England and Wales.


I find that the county grounds aren’t filling up when it’s the longer format of the game due to the schedule. They start middle-end of April, when British summer is in its fullest stereotypical flow of confusing cricket viewers the weather, and then BBC weather brakes down due to the surge of people logging online.

Basically, most of the time, one doesn’t know whether the weather will play a part in stopping one of two days of the longer format. However, if they started in summer, then one could keep track properly and see their beloved team, mine being Middlesex, in their group. Then, switch the Twenty20s to the start of the season as they simply last around 3-4 overs rather than…well…3-4 days long.


Take Kevin Pieterson for example, yes I completely understand that there was more to the background than not wanting to play ODI’s however, he has always prided himself in being a Test believer as real cricket and Twenty20s as being a bit of fun for the crowd. Even though it completely deflates the bowler if they get bombarded by an onslaught of seiged batsman such as Levi and Durston.


The single Twenty20 between England and West Indies seems to make a lot of sense anyway…That’ll improve the number 6 batting order very well.