Tony Becca

FIVE YEARS ago, when Twenty20 cricket was first played in England it was considered a joke, by 2004 the final at Edgbaston attracted a huge crowd, and three years later the recently concluded inaugural ICC World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa was a tremendous success.

It was such a success that many people, including two former greats of the game, have said that as far as excitement is concerned, Twenty20 cricket could be the game of the future.

According to former Pakistan captain and left-arm swing bowler Wasim Akram, Twenty20 could replace 50-over one-day internationals as the popular version of the game because it does not last too long and it provides plenty of excitement and tension for the spectators and viewers; and according to the former Indian captain and all-rounder Kapil Dev, in a short while it will become the most exciting format of the game.

The question, however, is how will Twenty20 cricket affect Test cricket? According to Akram, it will not make no difference.

According to Akram, Test cricket will always remain the "real cricket" for players and for purists around the globe, it will never be replaced, and I, like many others around the world, share his opinion.

Cricket is not only excitement and tension and drama. Among other things, cricket, Test cricket and first-class cricket, is also about character, it is about stamina, it is about adjusting to conditions and, most importantly, it is about skill - both with the bat and with the ball.

It certainly is not a game in which, most times and at this time, the batsman swings the bat and hopes that he connects.

Under pressure

The fact, however, is that once the trend re the popularity of Twenty20 cricket continues, traditional cricket, Test cricket and first-class cricket, will be under pressure from it, and for one simple reason.

That simple reason is money.

Right around the world, including the world of sports and the world of cricket, money, making money, is the order of the day, and despite the popularity of Test cricket in countries like Australia, England, India and South Africa, Test cricket, not to mention first-class cricket which is played before empty stands, cannot, based on what is already happening, make enough money to compete with either one-day internationals or Twenty20 games.

But for the purists who believe in copybook cricket, in style, elegance and majesty, who hate the sight of the ball flying often off the edge or the sight of the batsman going way outside the off-stump and trying to hit the ball over the wicketkeeper's head and who believe that a boundary should be the result of an intended, confident and perfect stroke by a batsman in command of the situation, Test cricket cannot match one-day cricket much more Twenty20 cricket.

And it cannot match it because one-day cricket and Twenty20 are shorter, because Twenty20 is much shorter and because of that, plus the excitement of the ball flying everywhere and anywhere almost after every delivery and the excitement of the music, the singing and the dancing, more people, and especially so the younger people, will flock to it.

Money attracts sportsmen, there is no question about that, and based on what is happening already, Twenty20 has the money - and plenty of it at that, so much so that whereas the winners of a Test series receive a token prize of a few dollars, where as the winners of the World Cup pocket US$2.24 million, the winners of the ICC World Twenty20 collected US$2 million for less than half the work in terms of balls bowled and time spent competing.

On top of that, India have been invited to take on the Stanford All-Stars for a winner's prize of US$5 million.

Looking at big money

Up to now, money in cricket has been limited mostly to international cricket with players in domestic leagues getting only a pittance. With the Stanford Twenty20 already on the road, however, with the Indian Cricket League, the Indian Pro-20 League and the Twenty20 Champions League on the horizon, domestic cricket and domestic players are looking at big money - bigger money than has been on the table even for Test cricketers.

In the West Indies, for example, the prize money for winning the Carib Beer Cup - the big regional four-day competition is US$12,500, and in England, the County champions pocket about US$200,000.

In its first year, the Stanford Twenty20 offered a first prize of US$1 million, the Indian Premier League will be offering about US$3 million when it gets under way and the Twenty20 Champions League, comprising franchises in England, Australia, India and South Africa, will be presenting the winners with more than US$2 million.

According to the reports, the appearance money for all the teams, including those in the Stanford Twenty20 tournament, will be more than the winners' prize in the domestic competitions.

According to the ICC, as popular as Twenty20 cricket has become and threatens to become, as far as it is concerned, Test cricket will remain number one with one-day cricket number two and Twenty20 number three.

Only time will tell, but it seems that with so much money in Twenty20 cricket it will not be long before all the cricketers everywhere in the world will switch to that version of the game or will place more emphasis on it.

Will it be good for the game as a whole? Maybe so, maybe not. Unless there are three different sets of cricketers, however, and three sets of batsmen in particular, it will be interesting to see how a batsman performs and the strokes he attempts as he moves from a Twenty20 match to a one-day match and then to a Test match

It does not seem like the game of cricket and, definitely the art of batting, will ever be the same.