The history of T20

The history of Twenty20 cricket has its roots in England. The England and Wales Cricket Board originally introduced it in 2003 as a professional inter-county tournament. The winners that year were the Surrey Lions who defeated the Warwickshire Bears to clinch the first ever Twenty20 Cup, which was a huge success with the crowds. Since then the Twenty20 format has been tried in almost all cricket playing nations and the results have been on the whole positive. On January 12th, 2005, Australia’s first ever Twenty20 match was played at the WACA between the Western Warriors and the Victoria Bushrangers. It drew a sellout crowd of 20,700 people. The first ever Twenty20 international was played between Australia and Ne
On January 12th,2005, Australia’s first ever Twenty20 match wasplayed at the WACA between the Western Warrior and the Victoria Bushrangers.The first ever Twenty220international was played between Australia and w Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland on 17thFebruary, 2005.The event was on the whole wasa success but some West Indian legends of the game, such as Micheal Holding, criticized it for being total ‘rubbish’. The match consists of twenty overs a piece and has to be finished within 3hrs. This gives each side exactly 75mins to get through their twenty overs with. Failing to bowl the requisite number of overs within the given time limit could result in penalty as per the umpire’s discretion. The penalty could be in the form of extra runs being awarded to the batting side if the bowling side is found guilty or it could be in the form of extra time being rewarded to the bowling side if it is the former that is guilty of time wasting.However, opinion regarding Twenty20 cricket still remains divided as its promoters insist that it will not replace any of the traditional formats but on the contrary will increase interest in them by pulling more people towards cricket as a whole. They also argue that the Twenty20 format is a great way of introducing cricket to the non-cricketing world which is used to fast games such as football. A lot will depend on the Championships as to whether it will survive or simply run out of air. The question is not whether it is popular but whether this surge in popularity can be sustained.