money, money, money.

twenty20 cricket: entertainment or signalling the death of interest in test games? at international and county level, one of the main incomes of money is through the t20 format of the game. the crowds are driven to the game through their desire to see hatfuls of sixs and slogging the ball a hundred metres. under the floodlights, the upbeat music, the dancers, the cheering crowds: sounds fun? people are flocking to see this kind of cricket but forgetting all about the true form of the game, the form which shows the most skill and concentration, the form every cricketer wants to be the best in the world in: test cricket.

90 overs a day, usually not as loud and half the amount of runs but still the most satisfying. in t20 cricket, a player can score 25 in two overs by slogging shots and taking ridiculous risks but in test circket, it could take an hour for a player to score that amount of runs. however, i would rather see a player build an innings and work hard for their score. thinking about to score those well-taken singles off the bowlers, the boundaries are less frequent but mean an awful lot more. exposing a bowler in t20 doesn't take a lot. an example of this is shane watson batting against graeme swann in the t20 down under, if my memory serves me correctly watson scored almost 30 runs off one over, off the best spinner in the world. they weren't the poorest of deliveries but thanks to the nature of the game, swann was hit all over the park.

this sort of attitude is rubbing off on the fifty over format of the game, batsmen taking risks for runs when they have a lot more time to settle down and build decent partnerships: sometimes it works, other occasions they're walking back to the dressing room, cursing themselves for trying such a thing.

the rewards of test cricket are so much greater as well. yes, england won the t20 world cup and we were all ecstatic to finally be world champions at something! but after two months out in australia and after five gruelling test matches, we returned home with the ashes, the greatest prize in world cricket. and what a series, the beauty of test cricket being defined in all five tests. the true cricket geek within me loves to see a bowler bowl a maiden, six stunning deliveries, really giving the batsman something to think about.

t20 is entertaining for some but we need to rememeber the true origin of cricket and why we all fell in love with it. nothing should ever replace test cricket. it might not bring in the same money and provide the non cricketing public with some interest in the game but at the end of the day, cricket shouldnt be about money. it's about 22 passionate players each game putting in their all.