I personally feel 20/20 will develop as a totally new game. Young kids will grow up and become just 20/20 players rather than playing the longer form of the game. I think this will be kept in order by the state of county junior cricket also the very well established independent schools who will remain with the traditional form of the game. I think its a money issue for the players cricket has always been in the shadows of football and when you look at the high rollers in Baseball its fairly compatible with that of cricket just the commercial element has not kicked in yet !

My friend ironically was involved in the 20/20 no names mentioned but he said it was like being a rock star and coming from where he does in southern Aus it must of been a real culture shock. But from a players point of view a fantastic way to announce yourself on the world stage. Just look at shaun Marsh of WA an unknown before his wide birth in the IPL he is now opening the batting for Aus in the west Indies. Just how quickly your luck changes in cricket is emphasised from this fellas progression !!

People say its just 'slogging' and will destroy proper technique in the game etc - but I heard a very good comment the other day - that the IPL boys don't slog - they generally play aggressive and well executed cricket shots. Its only the lower levles where players without the ability will resort to slogging.

For me, I played in the Last Man Stands league in London last year and the only times I made runs was when I didnt try and slog, & kept my eye on the ball. I'l like to hear what other people think but I beleive in a year or two there will be more emphasis on technique again and that its still relevant in 20/20.

Good points i totally agree in 20/20 they play aggressive cricketing shots and the whole emphasis of the game is placed around fast high paced attack minded stategies.

However i feel the balls chosen to attack are often manipulated at the top level in a way club cricketers can't. Thus leading to an outsome of 'russian roulette' cricket where one guy giving it a bit of bottom hand can inevitably win a game with a few lusty blows over cow corner!

This will then cause diferentiation between games as teaching a kid a forward defensive in a 20/20 mode game is just not part of the game he should be looking to time that into a gap for 1. If i was a youngster i know which version or style of batting i would enjoy and want to carry out to the middle with me !

I think its very interesting making a comparison with Baseball a maximum is a home run and they get taught how to hit a home run. In cricket a maximum is 6 runs how often is some one taught how to hit a six ???? I have been playing for 20 years and none of my past coaches have even mentioned those words ?????? six dont hit sixes - risky hit the ball on the floor ................ uhm well 6 runs is better than 1 if i only have 20 overs ????

Yeah I totally agree with James,I mean I absolutely love the entertainment of T20,BUT when it comes to this great game Im a bit of a tradiotionalist and coaches are gonna struggle to to teach kids how to switch between the diffrent variations of the game.

Although i think that it will be good for the longer versions of the game too in time(can you imagine 600 runs being scored on a test match day constently--absolutely ludacris ain'it)

And yes the Top Players can pick some good balls too despatch,how often in the past have you seen batsmen going down on one knee to paddle the quicks?

Oh and Phill,the Last Man Stand is brilliant isnt it!!!

Yer, Last Man Stands is excellent- good for real life fielding practice too. I played at Paddington Rec (A park in London for those who arent from the London or the UK.

Whe'd you play Pieter?

I played in Johannesburg ,at the Old Edwardians Club.Its loads of fun,I have to say though most of our guys went to do one thing and one thing only ,to slog it out the park,plenty of fiftys scored off like very little deliveries.But anyways it just brings a variation to our club cricket here in SA as we dont have a Club 20/20 competition here!!!

Oh and by the way if you go check on the rankings on the LMS website ,our side the southern Scorpions are ranked first,which is quite cool.

Right complete outrage last night in the 20/20 durham v Yorkshire thoughts and feelings please! Did anyone have a ticket for the game ???? Whats this all about disgrace get the game on get it live and then sort the problem out after !!!!!!!!!!!

Had look - Go Scorpians! 54 teams in South Africa - really taking of there then? Who tends to play? club players or guys who dont have time to play on Weekends etc?

yeah the game will definitely be about shots not very often do u score runs slogging u only get so much luck it will come down to strokes i remember watching an innings of damien martyns in 20/20 just played shots got 90 from 50 odd balls and didnt go the big swing once

Yeah its getting big over here,well The Scorpions are all club players and all of us Play in the Presidents League on Sundays,(which is the Leugue just below our Premier League).There is quite a few teams that consist of regular club players(you will see those are the sides with the higher scores) but the majority of the teams are guys not able to play 50 overs or a full day of cricket(due to work or family or whatever).
Its actually getting to a point where they will have to split the leagues,so the social guys dont have to compete against the boys playing club cricket.The thing is our team especially ,LIVE cricket all of us are provincial indoor players as well,so its unfair to the guys just looking for a saterday out having fun(so yeah its growing over here).

Yes Daniel,luck plays a role !!! Its where our (rather sarcastic) motto comes in of "WHEN IN DOUBT,HEAD DOWN!!!SWING HARDER".Yes sometimes you go cheaply ,but thats what its all about.SLOGGING!!!!

Pieter i think the SA might be downed in England by the might of the 3 lions !!!!!!!!!!!

I really like 2020 but I think it might calm down after a while and as the skills from it push up into ODI's people will start enjoying 50overs more again... I'm not sure, but thats my guess

We wil see what happens with the tests.I think its gonna be very even,but we will see

I like watching 20/20 even if the doom sayers are out for it. Considering a normal week night is taken up by terrible American sitcoms, a quick game of smash and bash is well worht watching. It has always rated well in Australia and will make ODI more exciting as players become more talented.

Twenty20 is generally focused on batmen and there in not much in it for bowlers.Soo batsmen friendly games may destroy the original reason we watch cricket - a good contest between bat & ball.
I personally think T20's should be played on bowling tracks with long boundaries so that a good contest between bat & ball is possible. Also, T20 has not got many tactics invoved - you just go out and hit the ball where its over 1 or 20. In that respect I would like to see 30 over games which are not just hitting out but also involve bating strategy and singles, defenses etc. I know some of these things are not what the public want to see, but too keep cricket 'cricket', we have to retain the original reasons that cricket was so enjoyable.

Hey all, since my last post i am happy to report that Our Club Competition here in Gauteng ,SA , now does include a T20 competition.Our first half of the season is the traditional "unlimeted overs " format. Each team gets a full innings(although it has a time limit) and the second innings allows for 5 wickets to be bowled out.Then end Jan to begin March is a 45 over competition,Then In March there is a T20 competition .It means that we as club cricketers now get to compete in three disciplines which was a much needed change to the format.It kind of runs with our professional season fixtures as well(so when you see the long format on TV ,you playing it for your club, and when you see all out slogging on TV , you slogging for your club)

It is a change for the better as we have seen some players fading towards the end of the season,especially if you not gonna win the league anymore.Now they will stick around coz' we still have two competitions in which we can get a trophy.

I ,for one, cant wait to get into it.

that sounds awesome actually:  the best of both worlds

Best of THREE worlds actually. We all glad they did it.Makes things interesting.