Twenty20 Cricket in India

The success of Twenty20 world cup was a sweet surprise for the tournament organizers. They managed to pull huge crowds and even non-cricket lovers started seeing this format of the game. Taking advantage of the love for this shortest format of the game, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) came up with a revolutionary concept called Indian Premier League (IPL). This was in-line with the English Premier League for soccer which is played in England. In IPL, franchise concept was introduced for the first time in cricket. Eight clubs were named by IPL organizers and through bidding, eight franchises bought those eight clubs. Then player bidding took place and the franchises fought with each other to get the player they desired. All international players were available for bidding and all the eight clubs were filled with stars who could win the matches on their own. Thus eight clubs were formed with a mixture of foreign and Indian players.

Eight venues were chosen for the eight clubs as home venues. Home and Away matches came into existence. Main thing about IPL was the amount of money involved. A player could earn a huge amount of money, by playing a single season of IPL which will be otherwise possible only if he plays international cricket for five years. Thus IPL2008 with full of fire crackers and cheerleaders began in April 2008 to change the way cricket is being played once in for all.

Twenty20: A New Format

The limited overs cricket was very successful that International Cricket Council (ICC) thought of introducing a new format of game called 20-20. 20-20 cricket was originally developed by England counties to pull more crowds to watch cricket. The main change in this new format is that instead of playing 50 overs each, the teams had to face only 20 overs. So the whole match got over in 3 hours. Also this format was full of entertainment. This prompted ICC to follow the lead and brought 20-20 cricket to the international circuit. Many cricket purists and critics doubted this format because this format shortens the game so much that it is more of a gambling than a game of cricket.

Solid techniques were not needed to shine in this format. Any player could shine if he has some luck along with innovative stroke play. Cricket became more and more a batsman’s game with little margin of error for the bowlers. But soon the popularity and the overwhelming response for this format made ICC to start Twenty20 Cricket world cup. Many cricket playing nations like India and Australia opposed this format. But to everyone’s surprise Twenty20 World Cup was a spectacular success and the team with the least experience in 20-20 cricket- India won the Twenty20 World Cup in a thrilling finale. That was the beginning of 20-20 cricket era.

Evolution of CrickeT

Cricket was originally invented by England in the 16th century. It is a team game. Two teams play against each other. Each team consists of eleven players. Believe it or not, the first ever cricket match was played between Canada and America. But the first official test match was played between Australia and England in Melbourne. Originally test matches were played continuously over many days till a result is achieved. But soon it became boring to watch a cricket match over a long period of time. So it was cut down to five days.

After many successful years of test match cricket, a new revolution of limited overs cricket came into existence. England was the pioneer in inventing new formats of the game and the first limited overs match was played in 1963 in English county. The first international limited overs match was played in 1971. Soon, one day cricket got support from many countries and the first world cup was played in 1975 in England. Many innovations took place in one day format and this format became more and more popular. Some of the significant rules were the mandatory fielding restrictions for the first 15 overs and the introduction of colored jerseys to the teams.