NEW DELHI, 18 July 2006 — India has bowed to pressure from the international cricket community and agreed to play the popular Twenty20 version of the game after initially scoffing at it.
Indian cricket chiefs said yesterday they would introduce the shortened slam-bang format at the domestic level and take part in the inaugural Twenty20 world championships in South Africa in September next year.
“Yes, we were reluctant at first to adopt this version because we thought it would undermine the 50 overs-a-side game,” Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah told AFP, referring to the traditional one-day game.
“But we were left with no choice after being out-voted 10-1 at the International Cricket Council (ICC) meetings.
“The new format will take time to get used to, but we don’t want to be reluctant participants at the world championships. We must play it at the domestic level first.”
A domestic Twenty20 tournament will be played in May next year after the traditional 50 overs-a-side World Cup ends in the Caribbean in April. India will also ask for a Twenty20 international to be included in the itinerary when it tours South Africa later this year, Shah said. Indian captain Rahul Dravid, who played a charity Twenty20 game in England earlier this month, said it needed to be introduced at the domestic level in India.
“We don’t have a domestic competition and I think it (Twenty20) has a place in domestic cricket,” Dravid had said after the match in London. The Twenty20 format gives each side 20 overs and ends in three hours, unlike the day-long 50-overs-a-side format.
Twenty20 matches, usually played after office hours, offer a feast of runs and have become highly popular in Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa.
The Twenty20 format will increase cricketers’ workloads in an already overcrowded calendar of Test and one-day matches, but many regard it as the game of the future.
Newly elected ICC President Percy Sonn of South Africa welcomed India’s decision to embrace the new format. “The BCCI’s decision is excellent news for cricket as it ensures the inaugural Twenty20 world championship will involve all ICC full members,” said Sonn in a statement. “That means the winning team can truly call itself the best in the world in this exciting new form of the game. “Twenty20 cricket has been a huge success wherever it has been played and this short and sharp event of just nine playing days will provide a global focus for the new format.
“We congratulate the BCCI on joining the other full members in embracing the format and look forward to a world-class tournament in South Africa that will capture the cricketing publics imagination,” said Sonn.
