South African-born allrounder Shadley van Schalkwyk nearly led the USA to a historic victory over India at the T20 World Cup. It’s become almost customary to switch on the television and tune into T20 cricket being played somewhere in the world. Be it the IPL, Betway SA20, Big Bash, CPL, PSL, T20 Blast, ILT20, MLC, GLT20, The Hundred, BPL or Nepal T20 League, there will be someone bowling slower balls and cutters trying to deceive a batter aiming to smash the ball out of the ground.
It would be fair to suggest that the avalanche of T20 cricket has made it addictive. Fans want it as much as they crave sugar. So, when the ICC decided to schedule three matches a day during the group stages of the on-going T20 World Cup, it was manna from heaven.
Cricket on telly virtually 12 hours a day. I had my own selfish reasons for being excited about the expanded fixture list though. 10 years ago, when the T20 World Cup was held in self-same India, eight teams featured in the two preliminary groups, from which two qualified for the Super 10s where the likes of England, Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, India, etc lay in wait.
Read Full Article on Cape Argus
[paywall]
It was a virtual warm-up before the actual main event. Now call me old-fashioned, but no World Cup – in any format – should consist of preliminaries. That’s what qualifier events are for.
[/paywall]
All Zim News – Bringing you the latest news and updates.
