English wickets will play crucial role in deciding champions

The international cricket arena is warming up for the forthcoming Twenty20 World Cup in England. The championship has become wide open with Australia losing its supremacy in one day internationals. Nevertheless, the Aussies would make every endeavour to win the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup.

Incidentally, it was England which hosted the first three ODI World Cups. But to date, they have never been lucky to engrave their country's name on the glittering World Cup. The English fans will be there in their numbers to cheer the home team but the hosts would face an acid test to keep their chances alive.

South Africa, having hosted the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) this year, stands a good chance of winning the title. Sri Lanka, the runners up of the last ODI World Cup, will be fielding a formidable team which is capable of lifting the title.

Greatest challenge from India

Above all, the greatest challenge would come from India, which made a revolution in Twenty20 cricket with the IPL, which has turned out to be a money spinner.

While attracting rich business tycoons and celebrities, the Indian cricket authorities have gradually laid a program to develop its national team and groom future national stars.

That too is understandable as India, as the host, must explore every avenue to make the best use of the IPL as the host nation. Though the IPL was taken to South Africa for security reasons, it is India which ran the second IPL in South Africa.

What benefit the star international players get by figuring in the IPL, other than monetary gains, is highly questionable.

Of course, the IPL has turned out to be lifetime jackpot for most of the international cricketers as the Indian teams 'buy' their foreign teams at an 'action'. It's the money that speaks most of the time at the IPL, giving less room for the game to blossom.

But India made the best use of the IPL, both money and cricket wise. While 'resting' their far superior 'exports' from around the world, most Indian teams continued to prefer to play the cricketers in their national pool.

Despite being off colour during almost the entire tournaments, most teams continued to play the star Indian national players.

Cannot forget India's contribution

That was a right policy from the Indian point of view as players such as Gautem Gambhir finally regained form by the end of the IPL. That was a big plus point for India as their selectors had plenty of options by the time they identify their final line up for their first Twenty20 World Cup match. On the other hand, most international players wallets were overflowing though they had plenty to gain cricket-wise. Even the heavyweights in international cricket were compelled to occupy the reserves' bench, paving way for lesser-known Indian youth.

However, one cannot forget the contribution that India has made to promote and popularise the latest shortened version of cricket. When the West did not show any interest for the established game and even the regular fans gradually refused to 'kill time' watching five days of Test cricket, it was the one day internationals that became extremely popular. The ODIs not only turned out to be a crowd puller but also generated high volumes of funds for the organisers.

Since the inaugural ODI World Cup in 1975, the ODI cricket has come a long way and after nearly three and a half decades of 40-50 overs per side limited over cricket, the latest attraction in cricket for busy sports fans is Twenty20 cricket.

Twenty 20 cricket attracts new fans

But one cannot expect much technicality in Twenty20 as pinch hitting is the order of the day, making it hell for the bowlers. It is a nightmare for most bowlers as even the reputed international bowlers are subjected to severe thrashings. It is virtually nothing that a bowler could gain in mastering the game through Twenty20 cricket. On the other hand, the batsmen too are forced to forget copybook style strokes and go for the 'lusty' strokes that would only spin nothing but money.

As I have stated in this column before, the Twenty20 cricket has turned out to be a good solution to give a new facelift to international cricket and attract new fans, especially those who are in the West who prefer to spend one session, not just one whole day.

Though the Americans and Europeans have shown less interest on cricket, the Twenty20 would be the ideal version to promote the game on those continents. Of course, cricket is a passion and a way of life in the sub continent but it's a different story altogether in most other parts of the world. For example, though we find millions of cricket crazy fans in South Asia, the game is not popular in South East Asia at all.

Cricketers figuring in Olympics not that far

Hence, the Twenty20 cricket could play a greater role in attracting many fans and followers for the game and make it popular worldwide. This would pave way for cricket to obtain Olympic recognition in the near future. Having figured in a previous Commonwealth Games, cricket will now come to the Asian Games proper. The day our cricketers figuring in Olympics is not that far and if that happens, the Lankan team is even capable of winning Sri Lanka's first ever Olympic gold medal.

Going back to the first ever Twenty20 Cricket World Cup, the English wickets would play a crucial role in deciding the champions. Unlike the slow tracks in the sub continent, the English wickets would not give that much of freedom for the batsmen to make too many mistakes.