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Loading ...I quite agree with Symonds, Twenty20 should not become too serious as in the recently concluded test series between India and England we saw that the best form of cricket is a 5 day match. And I dont think that the Australian selectors should have picked a full strength team as this way they are not promoting their own younger generation. Almost every other team is sending a pretty young side to the world cup.
Just a bit of hit and giggle, or is it more?
By Scott last year, mid-August Leave a comment on this post
Andrew Symonds likes Twenty20 for the fun, but he is worried it might be taken too seriously.
One of the game’s most exciting batsmen, Symonds takes a laid-back approach to Twenty20, much like his autograph signing session at Brisbane’s Ekka yesterday - he turned up with bare feet.
“It’s a game of fun for me,” Symonds, 32, said. “But it looks like it’s heading down the serious route, unfortunately.”
The Australian selectors have named a full-strength line-up for the inaugural tournament, which begins in South Africa on September 11. However, Symonds says the players are yet to discuss their approach for the championship.
“Playing the (Twenty20) games in the past, the captain doesn’t mind if you interact with the kids in the crowd and muck around a bit, but now I don’t know if that’s going to be the case. I think it may end up heading down that serious road,” he said. “I think in the end pride will take over and it will end up being a full-blown battle.”
30 years ago, Australia’s cricketers had a similar attitude to the 50 over game. It will be interesting to see how attitudes evolve over time.
Tags: andrew-symonds, Twenty20-World-Cup |
7 Responses to “Just a bit of hit and giggle, or is it more?”
August 18th, 2007 at 4.05 am
August 18th, 2007 at 11.49 am
Roy may think it’s a hit and giggle now, but he will be taking it seriously enough on the day. Like the rest of the Australian team, which is why they’ll be sending their best team. Australia always play their best, Kunal, regardless of what other teams may do. They set their own standards, which is why they are no. 1.
August 18th, 2007 at 12.42 pm
Rusty, I completely agree that Australia is the best team in the world. I wanted to see the Aussies send in a younger team so that we can also see what the future holds for Oz cricket. I have the utmost respect for the Australians, living in Australia for the last 10 years. However, this tournament gave the Oz selectors an opportunity to send a young team that would have given them an idea of where Australian cricket was heading. And I think that they missed a trick here.
Still since this is a Twenty20 match, anything can happen, and by that I mean even Australia may lose an important game and be shown the doors despite of a team that has the best players, although that may seem far fetched.
August 18th, 2007 at 10.00 pm
twenty20 should not be an international game.
August 19th, 2007 at 3.33 am
I agree kenans… Im not a huge fan!!!
August 19th, 2007 at 11.41 am
Kunal,
I didn’t think you were being disrespectful or anything. I think it is perfectly possible (and so does Symonds!), if not likely, that the Australians will not win the Twenty20 WC - as you say, anything can happen. It’s a much more wayward game than the other forms, and Ponting’s team are not that practiced at this form of the game.
Nevertheless, I still can’t understand your reasoning about the selectors sending a young team to see where they’re at. They see them playing in the national comp. and in currently in the county comp. in England. And anyway, most of the up-and-coming ones are going to be in Pakistan in September for the Travelex Tour, a more comprehensive workout for them than the Twenty20, I would imagine.
Young stars Adam Voges (c),, Cullen Bailey, Dan Cullen, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ashley Noffke, Chris Rogers, Luke Ronchi are being “chaperoned” by veteran Stuart MacGill in the Australia A squad. No, it won’t be televised, so you, me and the public won’t personally see them (if that is your point) but they will be on international duty and in the selector’s view.
And again, Australian selectors don’t send experimental or hopeful squads for international matches, but their top team at the time, as they perceive them. It’s part of the culture - call it wanting to win at all costs, or call it professionalism, but it’s unthinkable not to do so. After 10 years in Oz, you should know that 
August 19th, 2007 at 5.08 pm
Funnily enough, spectators like to be entertained, and want to see a competative show.
Have you ever played a game against someone who doesn’t give a shit, and behaves stupidly? It’s not much fun, and utterly pointless, unless everyone’s doing it for the same reason.
Twenty20 is thought of in different ways around the world. It was supposed create competative cricket, in a shorter, more intense, more accessible and fun format. And it is helping spread the game around the world.
But there isn’t general concensus around the world as to what its purpose is yet, hence, for Team Australia, it’s just a bit of “a hit and a giggle” at the moment.
I’m sure they’ll take it seriously on the day, but when half the teams think of it as silly, it devalues the spectacle.
After the fiasco of the 50-over World Cup, this is an experiment to see if Twenty20 will replace the tired 50-over format.
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