But only as a novelty act during the Australian summer.
Watching the game on Tuesday night – along with a huge Australian national audience – I was entertained by the three and a bit hour spectacle but I can’t say I gave two hoots about the result. In fact even when the 20/20 format entered the International program a few years ago it was just an entertainment package rather than an actual contest where winning actually mattered. And when the farcical World 20/20 Championships were held earlier this year – again did anyone really care if Australia won?
The greatest thing to come out of the game in Perth wasn’t Andrew Symonds’ 85 not out, Jacob Oram’s unbeaten 66, Jeetan Patel’s catch at point or even the Australian pace attack’s opening barrage that left New Zealand 5/36. It was the Luke Pomersbach story – a story that will grow even grander in the retelling over the years – where the 23 year old was rung up by the Australian team manager Steve Benaud and told to come to the WACA to play for his country just over an hour before the start of play.
Pomersbach had arrived at the ground with his girlfriend to sit on the hill and watch the festivities but ended up batting for his country and hitting a memorable 6 over midwicket during his stay at the crease. While he wasn’t literally picked out of the crowd (the selectors weighed up their batting options from the Western Australian squad before calling Pomersbach who happened to be at the ground) he did provide a genuine buzz to the Australian innings as you watched him nervously sit on the bench waiting to bat.
But as a contest the game doesn’t breed excellent cricket. It produces high octane beligerant action that sees the game take a turn down the wrong road as far as I’m concerned if the administrators are keen on pushing more and more of these novelty games in future tours.
Personally if 20/20 has a future it is at the domestic level in the format of the ‘Big Bash’ that the Australian states compete in over the New Year period. But internationally the game must be treated as nothing more than an enjoyable way to open or close a tour – if we start to see 3 to 5 game series instead of the traditional Test and challenging One Day formats of the game. The latter formats will be played before ever dwindling crowds as the younger demographic (which is the future Test demographic) lose their connection to the subtleties and appreciation of how cricket is supposed to be played and simply don’t turn up at the grounds to anything but 20/20 cricket.
For the record – Australia won the game by 54 runs.
