Cricket for a long time has endured a less than favourable reputation amongst this country's sporting establishment, more often that not it has been in the shadows of football. One of the main reason's for this was perhaps England lack of success in the sport but considering the football teams performance of late this can easily be discounted. The obvious reason is more the perception of cricket and it's relavity mundane viewing as apposed to 90 minutes of football. However the problem is, if cricket is compared to football in this manner it will always come out a loser. Although the Ashes rekindled the public's interest after years, cricket needed something new to capture audiences on a consistent basis who were looking for instant entertainment. Hence Twenty20 was born.

Twenty20 is a much reduced form of normal one day matches. As the name suggests, one day matches take virtually a whole day to play consisting of 50 overs each. Many a times one day matches are extremely exciting however you need a whole day to watch the match and this is simply not feasible for the majority of working people in Britain. Twenty20 attempted a compromise, it was only 20 overs and importantly could be played after the usual 9 to 5 working shift and subsequently it became popular after work entertainment.

There have been many attempts to change the format of cricket from its associated 5 days marathon. Many of these have failed due to lack of interest. However Twenty20 has been a success, mainly due to its flexibility and also its colourful and loud atmosphere something not usually associated with cricket. In the english county version of the game, each team has its own coloured kit and 'nickname'.

The main difference that can be seen is the fast paced of the action and also aggressive nature of the players. In the past cricket was seen as closer to chess than it was to football or rugby. With Twenty20 however, batters have a reduced numbers of balls to face, hence the likelihood of the whole team being out is reduced. This promotes the batsmen to take more risks and in general we see many more boundaries. Bowlers have a hard time in this form of cricket, often they are put under pressure by the aggressive nature of the batsmen and many times they can go for many runs. However the more clever bowlers are the ones who vary their deliveries and force the batsmen into mistakes. It all makes for fascinating watching and spectators rarely get bored.

Twenty20 has been a success and by all indications it is here to stay. It began in England but has now been taken up by the other cricket playing nations. It is rumoured that a Twenty20 world cup is being planned and it seems to have support. No doubt many will favour this form of cricket and in particular the televised media who will not require to give up a whole day's television to show the cricket.

Disadvantages? Well there are some and these are usually voiced by the 'old generation' of former cricketers and officials who believe the skill of cricket is taken out when reduced to only twenty overs. It can be argued that some of the best players in the game are the ones who can accumulate lots of runs batting over a long period of time or for a bowler is consistent enough to pick up wickets. With Twenty20 this sadly is lost as long innings are a thing of the past and bowlers have maximum of four overs. Overall though it can still be argued that Twenty20 is in no way a threat to the usual test match cricket and the old art of cricket will not be lost with this instant fun, shortened version. As long as it keeps pulling in the crowd and continues to produce exciting matches Twenty20 is here to stay and I for one will be watching.