+xI feel so disillusioned with 20/20 that I'm a TCA Member and generally don't watch games a few minutes from my residence. However, I know 99% of the population now prefer 20/20. I've also had very persuasive arguments put forward that I'm a dinosaur, with a few other geriatrics, trying to hold on to the past that has disappeared in cricket! If I support a BBL team, it is the Hobart Hurricanes. The big hitting is great in 20/20, but I hate the defensive fields and the horrible unorthodox shots. To be a bowler must be awful in 20/20. I used to think that way as well but I changed my view after watching a couple of years of big bash. In the early years a lot of the format was mindless slogging, but captains and bowlers have adapted well since then and the contest can be much more engaging than that. The thing I've realised is that most of the time when a bowler is getting utterly smashed it's because they are bowling badly - they are just putting it on an easy line and length, bowling half volleys and/or wide. Starc bowls so well in T20 because he has that fantastic yorker. I also worried that there was nothing a captain could really do to cut down runs and take wickets, but as McCullum showed last night, you can if you have bowlers good enough to execute the plan. As a spin bowler I was worried that the big hitting format would cause my art to die out, or that spinners would just bowl flat and fast to try and combat the slog. However the best T20 bowlers in the world are often spin bowlers who bowl with variation (like Narine, Vettori, even Lyon) -they know the mindset of the batsman will always be aggressive so they are in with a chance of wickets. I remember that apparently Don Bradman once said he admired baseball and said "cricket could learn a lot from it" because the game was over in four hours. Perhaps he wouldn't have minded such a short format. It's still not my favourite format, mind you. Test cricket is still the king.
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