JOHANNESBURG, 25 September 2007 — International cricket chiefs declared the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup an outstanding success yesterday but said they now had to work out how to fit the game into a crowded calendar.
The thrills, spills and carnival atmosphere in the slam-bang format proved a major hit with fans who packed stadia during the two-week tournament in South Africa, in stark contrast to the empty grounds at the 50 over World Cup in the West Indies earlier this year.
“The ICC world Twenty20 has been an outstanding success, it’s been short, it’s been sharp and the crowds have been great,” International Cricket Council chief executive Malcom Speed said after a thrilling final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg which was only decided in the last over.
But the Australian Speed admitted that the ICC faced huge challenges in what to do with the form of the game.
“Test cricket we value greatly, 50-over cricket is the financial driver of the game and now we have Twenty20 which has proved immensely popular,” he said.
“It’s a great problem for us to have, a format of the game that is so popular with fans, players and broadcasters.”
Speed said the ICC had put in place a strategy to keep the form of the game without it pushing out the older forms, and member countries had agreed to limit themselves to three home matches and four away matches a year of international Twenty20 cricket.
The ICC sees the future of the game rooted in domestic cricket where it started.
“We want states, counties and provinces to continue to play it, we want to keep this format of the game,” said Speed, adding it was the perfect vehicle for cricket to develop in countries such as the United States and China.
“It is one of the challenges we face to make sure the three formats remain vibrant - it’s a terrific problem.”
As far as more world cup Twenty20 tournaments go, the next is set for England in 2009, after which the board of the ICC would decide when and how often the tournaments would take place.
“We can now move forward to plot the next staging of this event ... safe in the knowledge that Twenty20 international cricket has taken its place at the game’s top table,” ICC president Ray Mali said in a statement.
Speed emphasized the focus on retaining and safeguarding Test cricket, calling it “the iconic form of the game.”
Tournament director Steve Elworthy said that despite the huge success of the off-field entertainment, disco-style cricket accompanied by dancing girls and loud music, the focus had never veered off the actual cricket being played.
“As we have seen from the opening game, we had tight games, smaller countries beating bigger countries. It’s all been about the cricket.”
With the last World Cup in the West Indies much criticized for being too long, the ICC is reviewing the length of the tournament.
“The next World Cup will be shorter. We haven’t quite worked out how much shorter it will be,” Speed said, saying it was possible it would be anywhere from 35 to 40 days long.
