LEE PAYNE

Tag: 20

  • England are in a World Cup final – I urge you to watch it

    Football and cricket are my two favourite sports, but seeing as Dean Smith’s tactics are continuing to bore everyone at Carrow Road and a World Cup built by slaves is about to kick off in the desert it’s hard to get excited about the former at the moment. So cricket it is. Indeed, cricket is better than football and England are in a World Cup final!

    England captain Jos Buttler completes the demolition of India in the semi-finals

    The T20 World Cup – that is, the global tournament for the short and sweet 20-overs-per-side format of the game – started in Australia on 16th October. The first week saw Ireland, Namibia, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, the West Indies and Zimbabwe compete in two groups of four for four places in the next round. There were shocks – Nambia beat Sri Lanka (2014 winners) in the very first game and Scotland beat the West Indies. The West Indies were actually eliminated in this first round – the 2012 and 2016 champions were out before the tournament had really got going.

    Ireland, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe progressed to the Super 12 stage, where they were joined by Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa in two more groups of six. The top two in each group would go through to the semi-finals. Australia, the hosts and last year’s winners, were thrashed by New Zealand in their first game. Pakistan lost a thriller to arch-rivals India, then were beaten by Zimbabwe to leave them on the brink of going out.

    Australia won the World Cup last year but failed to get out of the group stage here

    The weather was a problem early on. The tournament was being played very early in the Australian spring, so rain caused issues in several games – Afghanistan’s two chances to play at the enormous, world famous Melbourne Cricket Ground were both washed out. South Africa would have beaten Zimbabwe had the rain not come down, a dropped point that would prove very costly indeed. The tasty clash between Australia and England did not see a ball bowled. England were stuttering in a run chase against Ireland before the weather forced an early ending, with the Irish earning a famous win on the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern method.

    New Zealand were the early form horses, but England beat them and then completed a nervy win over Sri Lanka to knock Australia out of their own competition and progress to the semi-finals. On the final day of the Super 12s, South Africa suffered a shock defeat to the Netherlands to open the door for the winner of the Bangladesh v Pakistan match to go through at their expense. That beneficiary was Pakistan, into the semi-finals when days before it looked like they were heading home.

    Pakistan are in the T20 World Cup final for the third time – they won it in 2009

    In the first semi-final, Pakistan fielded superbly and their captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan enjoyed their best opening partnership of the tournament to see off New Zealand. On Thursday, a feverish India-supporting crowd in Adelaide watched on in shock as England chased down 169 without losing a wicket and with four overs to spare. Jos Buttler’s team hit top gear at just the right time, thrashing the much-fancied Indians. It means the tournament is denied the glamorous, money-spinning grudge match of a final that India vs Pakistan would have been, but England and Pakistan deserve to be there. The two sides played out a thrilling seven-match T20 series a few weeks before the World Cup, with England winning 4-3, so hopes are high for an entertaining final and a worthy winner.

    Up to now, the entire tournament has been hidden behind the paywall of Sky Sports, but they have graciously done a deal with Channel 4 so that the final will be live for all to see on free-to-air television. If you’re not a cricket fan, I urge you to tune in – T20 is fast, exciting and England might just win a World Cup. And that’s not something that’s going to happen in Qatar.

    T20 World Cup 2022 – Final
    England v Pakistan
    Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia
    Sunday 13th November 2022, 8am GMT
    Channel 4

  • The Hundred might look like a good thing but it’s causing big problems for cricket

    A reminder: cricket is the best sport in the world. I feel it worth reminding everyone because I’m about to spend a few minutes chewing my nails about its current state and future direction.

    If you’re not a dedicated follower of the game, you would be forgiven for thinking that all is well and that cricket is entering the national consciousness more than it has done for some time. You may have noticed that BBC Two have shown a couple of matches from the first week of the Hundred tournament, and that cricket has also been a part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

    The Hundred is controversial because, while its outward intention is noble in attempting to get new fans interested in cricket, it has gone about this by implying that the traditional game can’t be sold to the public. The fundamentals – such as an over consisting of six balls – have been thrown out of the window, creating a whole new format that no one else in the world plays and bears little resemblence to the others. If the Hundred is meant to be gaining new fans for cricket, what is the point of changing the rules to the extent that those new fans will find it difficult to get into Test matches or One Day Internationals?

    Aside from the format, the Hundred disposes of the traditional county teams and is competed for by sides that reek of a marketing agency brainstorming session. If you think the Manchester Originals and the Welsh Fire sound tacky, you should see their logos. Obviously, in England we only have a few months of the year to play cricket so adding the Hundred to the calendar has raised serious questions about overly packed schedules and player burnout. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have made it clear that the Hundred is their marquee tournament – it gets the biggest marketing budget – and therefore it gets the prime place in the summer, during the school holidays. The T20 Blast, which since its inception in 2003 had been English cricket’s great domestic money spinner, was done and dusted by the time the kids broke up.

    Hampshire won the 2022 T20 Blast, but you’d be forgiven for having missed it

    Personally, I’m not a fan. I may have been a cricket devotee for twenty years but I’m not one of those pig-headed enough to think the game doesn’t have to appeal to new audiences. Ever since England internationals were sold to Sky in 2006, the game has waned in its relevance to the public. Children aren’t becoming obsessed by the sport by stumbling across it on Channel 4, like I did. Players like Joe Root and Ben Stokes should be rock stars, yet they could walk down most streets unnoticed. The Hundred does at least put cricket back on terrestrial television, yet in my opinion at an unnecessarily high cost. Pumping the same money into the T20 Blast, pushing it into the public eye on BBC TV at the height of summer would surely have had the same effect.

    I do still watch the Hundred. It is still cricket, and I doubt the impact of an individual boycotting something like that. But when I see the BBC Two coverage starting with a sort of rap/hip hop tune in its opening titles, I get the impression that this tournament isn’t for me. Every effort is made to appeal to young people, to ‘urbanise’ the game, and in a way it feels like a bit of an insult to cricket itself because the game is already great. I feel nothing for the teams, being made up and not steeped in any kind of history of tradition, and it takes me a while to remember who won its first edition last year (it was Southern Brave).

    So for all the Hundred is doing in appealing to new fans, it leaves us with a summer schedule bursting at the seams. Ben Stokes, arguably England’s most exciting player, withdrew from the tournament last summer as well as all other forms of cricket to prioritise his mental health. This year, he announced before it had even started that he wasn’t going to play in it before retiring from ODIs, citing having to play too often as one of the reasons for his decision. Having only just turned 31 and three years on from almost single-handedly winning the World Cup for England, these should be the prime years of his career so it should be a significant warning to the authorities that he felt his only option was to walk away.

    Ben Stokes played his last ODI in July, before retiring from the format at the age of 31

    The Hundred is just one of many domestic tournaments around the world that cricketers can sign up for. Unlike football, the international game has traditionally been seen as the most important and most lucrative. This has changed dramatically since the Indian Premier League (IPL) was launched in 2008. According to an article by Tim Wigmore in the August issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly, the IPL’s latest broadcasting rights deal will see each live match generate £12 million – out of all the sports leagues in the world, only the NFL (American Football) is more lucrative. Keen to grab their own slice of the pie, other tournaments have popped up all over the world. There is the Big Bash in Australia, the Pakistan Super League, and a new one that is due to launch in the United Arab Emirates early next year.

    The Indian Premier League has been an astonishing success

    Professional cricketers can earn life changing sums of money from playing in these tournaments all over the world. Only players from India, Australia and England could hope to earn as much from playing for their countries. This has left players with extraordinary decisions to make, and increasingly they are prioritising representing an IPL franchise over playing for their nations. It’s a worrying situation, and the Hundred is only adding to the headache.

  • A sporting break – my July 2022 trip to Manchester

    My view of England v South Africa, Old Trafford, Manchester, 22nd July 2022

    I’ve been back from my holiday for a week now, but as these things often do, it feels like a lot longer!

    I usually go away around my mum’s birthday (19th July) and this year was no different. In 2021, we stayed in Salford to make it easy to get to Old Trafford for a T20 cricket match between England and Pakistan. On this occasion, we actually stayed in a hotel right in the middle of Manchester.

    The Portland Hotel, Manchester

    My room was on the third floor of the hotel, with mum and her other half Dave a couple of doors down. It was clean and comfortable with a Queen size bed. You could hear the trams rumbling through the city centre, but rather than being irritating it was actually quite a pleasant sound.

    On our first night, we walked across the road into Piccadilly Gardens and found a fan park dedicated to the Women’s Euro 2022. There you could buy merchandise, eat and drink, and watch the matches on a big screen. I had been enjoying the tournament and England had North Walsham’s Lauren Hemp in their squad, so it was fun following the progress of the Norfolk girl. Our first night in Manchester happened to be the night of England’s quarter final against Spain, so we sat in the fan park with hundreds of others and cheered the Lionesses on.

    The fan park in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens

    England went behind – conceding a goal for the first time in the tournament – but battled back to win 2-1 in extra time. The atmosphere was fantastic and it really made you feel part of the event.

    The moment the final whistle went in the fan park

    The next day, we had booked to go to the National Football Museum. I’d been to the museum a couple of times before, but there is so much to see that there’s no chance you’ll ever see it all. We spent two-and-a-half hours browsing the exhibits, which include the original written laws of the game, the ball used in the 1966 World Cup final and a seat from the original Wembley stadium. Afterwards, we did a bit of shopping. I used to hate buying clothes but these days I actually quite enjoy it.

    The National Football Museum

    Friday was the day of the One Day International between England and South Africa – the reason for our trip up north. Now, cricket is obviously the best sport in the world but, famously, it is at the mercy of the weather. You can’t play cricket in the rain. Not because the players are wimps, but because water and a cork ball wrapped in leather don’t mix. Opening the curtains, I was met with typical Manchester weather – grey skies, damp pavements and drizzly rain.

    Undeterred, we were at the ground when the gates opened at 11am. We were well aware that the game wasn’t going to start at the scheduled time of 1pm. We went to the club shop, we had a drink, and then a chance encounter meant my mum got a photo with England’s star batter Jonny Bairstow!

    Mum and Jonny Bairstow

    At one point we thought the match would be abandoned without a ball being bowled, but the weather did eventually relent for long enough for us to get a game on. Play finally began at 4.45pm, reduced to 29 overs per side from the 50 it was supposed to be. England were sent into bat and I didn’t think they played that well, being bowled out for 201 towards the end. It turned out to be more than enough, however, as South Africa were bowled out for just 83 to give England a win by 118 runs.

    We (literally) squeezed onto a tram to make the 15 minute journey back to our hotel, pleased that we’d seen a match despite the rain and that England had won.

    On Saturday afternoon, after a leisurely breakfast we travelled back to Norfolk in the car. On Sunday, it was back to work…

    When’s my next holiday?

  • I went to a sporting event for the first time since the pandemic began

    Me, mum and Dave at the cricket

    I don’t mind big crowds. They afford a certain anonymity, and I like that. I would prefer to be in a crowd than in a room with one other person. I’m used to them, too – I’ve had a season ticket at Norwich City for 13 years, I’ve seen the England cricket team a few times, I’ve been to a play-off final at Wembley.

    On 4th March 2020 I went to see Norwich play Spurs at their magnificent new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. There were 58,000 people there to see City win on penalties and progress to the FA Cup quarter finals. Covid-19 was most definitely around at that point – it had been over a month since the first confirmed case in the UK and businesses were starting to ask their employees how they would feel about working from home. But it would be another nineteen days before the country went into full lockdown.

    There was no indication that it would be a full 503 days until I would be watching sport in the flesh again. On Tuesday 20th July, a day after almost all legal restrictions related to coronavirus had been lifted in England, I was at a packed Old Trafford cricket ground to see England play Pakistan in a T20 match.

    I was unsure of how I’d feel about being back in a capacity crowd, but I was surprised how normal it felt. Getting into the ground, having walked from the hotel, was quick and easy. The only sign that there was a pandemic at all was the ground staff wearing masks. I wore mine when I was moving around the ground, having only had one vaccine dose so far it seemed a reasonable precaution. With mask wearing now a personal choice rather than a legal requirement, however, I was among a minority who donned a face covering. We were almost always outside and it was a scorching hot afternoon but it jarred a little, it must be said.

    My mum, her partner and I had seats right on the back row of the top tier of the stand next to the pavilion so we didn’t have people breathing on the back of our necks for four hours, thankfully. The PA announcer gave semi-regular reminders to wash your hands, try to keep a safe distance from other people and respect their choices regarding face coverings but, again, without those you wouldn’t have even known what had been going on for the last eighteen months.

    Old Trafford was full

    There is a large population of British Asians in the north west and Old Trafford had a lot of Pakistan fans in attendance, proudly showing off their green shirts, waving the Pakistani flag and blowing horns at deafening volume. There can’t have been much difference in numbers between England and Pakistan supporters, and the Pakistan fans were certainly louder than their English counterparts. It made for a fantastic atmosphere and it got the intriguing game of cricket it deserved.

    This game was the last in a series of three T20 matches between the two countries. The first, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, was a very high scoring affair with England falling 31 runs short of chasing Pakistan’s mammoth 232-6. Liam Livingstone smashed 103 off just 43 balls, the fastest century for England in T20 Internationals, but it wasn’t quite enough. Headingley in Leeds was the venue for the second match, with England 200 all out with one ball remaining in their innings and defending it comfortably thanks to their spinners to win by 45 runs. That meant the Old Trafford match was a decider and a chance to see where both sides were at ahead of the World Cup that starts in October.

    In case you didn’t know…

    When you think of Old Trafford, you probably think of the home of Manchester United, but the football ground and cricket ground are different places. They are a short distance from each other, but the cricket ground was actually there first.

    My mum was hoping to see sixes flying all over the place, but the pitch was slow and difficult to bat on. Pakistan won the toss and batted first, posting a total of 154-6. Wicketkeeper and opening batsman Mohammad Rizwan top scored with an unbeaten 76 but that took a relatively sedate 57 balls and it quickly became apparent that there was nothing in the pitch for the seamers. Most of the bowling was done by the spinners, with England’s Adil Rashid taking 4-35 from his four overs.

    This sort of slow, dry, spinning pitch is just the sort of thing that England might have to play on in the World Cup, which is being held in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, so it is possible that such conditions were deliberately concocted to give them some experience of how to deal with them.

    England’s opening batsman Jason Roy found it easier than most to find the boundary, scoring 64 from 36 balls with 12 fours and 1 six, an innings which proved decisive in the match and enough to earn Roy the player of the match award. Star man Jos Buttler couldn’t really get going – much to my mother’s chagrin – and whenever anyone tried to go big they were usually caught in the deep.

    A wonderful sunset as a hot day came to an end

    A regular fall of wickets left England behind the required run rate and needing 33 from 19 balls and 12 from 8 when the fifth wicket went down. Liam Livingstone, player of the series and Lancashire favourite, strode out and promptly whacked his first ball for six to put England back in the driving seat. He was caught next ball (also trying to hit it into next week) and the captain Eoin Morgan was still to go but the home team scrambled a two to seal victory with two balls to spare. Not a high scoring match, but a last over thriller satisfied the crowd.

    Getting out of the ground was no problem as we stayed to watch the trophy presentation while most of the deflated Pakistan supporters were leaving. And that was that – my first sporting event attended in person since the pandemic began. It shouldn’t – and I really hope it isn’t – another 503 days before the next one.

    England collect the trophy after winning the series 2-1

    All photos in this post were taken by me.

  • England in South Africa – preview

    England’s tour of New Zealand was a bit of a let down. It was a much anticipated first meeting of the two teams since the World Cup final, the sides evenly matched and now rivals full of mutual respect. The series of five T20s, however, was four too many. I understand that preparations for next autumn’s T20 World Cup are now the focus but five felt like too much.

    The tourists rested most of their biggest names for those white ball matches and went with fresh faces. There was no Jos Buttler, Jason Roy or Jofra Archer to name just three, but there was Tom Banton, Pat Brown and Saqib Mahmood. While it was intriguing to see how these youngsters got on, it left the T20s without that star quality – especially as New Zealand were without their captain Kane Williamson, who was injured.

    Somerset youngster Tom Banton got his first chance to impress in England colours in New Zealand

    The cricket was good, to be fair. England won the first game, then their inexperienced bowlers suffered and they found themselves 2-1 down. Dawid Malan then scored the fastest T20I century by an Englishman, smashing an unbeaten 103 from 51 balls, and leg spinner Matt Parkinson took four wickets on his debut to level the series.

    After the drama at Lord’s in July, incredibly, the last match ended in a tie. Reduced to 11 overs a side in Auckland due to rain, both teams scored 146. This time the Super Over was decisive, with England comfortable winners.

    New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham couldn’t believe it when another match against England went to a Super Over in Auckland

    There were only two Tests, which is never enough but especially not when it’s England versus New Zealand. The Black Caps have become a very fine Test team in recent years and deserve at least three matches against the ‘marquee’ sides. Reportedly the New Zealand board lose money when they host Test matches, which rather forces their hand unfortunately. Neither of the Tests were part of the World Test Championship either, which gave the whole series the feel of a warm up for bigger things to come.

    As beautiful as the cricket grounds of New Zealand are, the pitches prepared did not provide a great advertisement for Test cricket. The Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui hosted its first Test match but saw the hosts bat for 200 overs and then dismiss England for 197 to win by an innings. A week later in Hamilton the England captain Joe Root made a very welcome return to form with 226 but rain and a placid surface meant New Zealand easily played out a draw and took the series 1-0.

    New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watling batted for 11 hours in scoring 205 in the first Test against England

    Williamson’s men were using the series to prepare for crossing the Tasman, as they had been given the rare opportunity to have a proper go at Australia. For the first time in more than thirty years New Zealand will be part of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Aussies are resurgent at the moment and thrashed them by 296 runs in Perth – it remains to be seen if they can bounce back from that.

    England will be playing on Boxing Day as well, in Centurion in the first Test against South Africa. It feels like a properly big series, this one. Four Tests, two well matched sides, playing at grounds that have produced exciting cricket over the last few years. For the TV spectator back home, the time difference between the UK and South Africa means the first ball of each day’s play will be bowled at either 8am or 8.30am. Wonderful. Especially when the New Zealand games were real through-the-night affairs.

    Jimmy Anderson, England’s all time leading Test wicket taker, looks set to return to the team after a year blighted by injury. He has not bowled a ball for his country since limping off after sending down four overs on the first day of the Ashes at Edgbaston in August. It would be great to see him back. The tourists will also hope that Root’s double hundred in his last outing means the skipper has turned a corner, as well as that Jofra Archer can bowl at his quickest once again.

    Jimmy Anderson is fit and ready to return for England in South Africa

    South Africa have been in chaos off the field. Among other things their board’s chief executive was suspended following allegations of misconduct, their players were apparently considering going on strike over a breach of commercial rights and a number of sponsors announced they would be ending their association with Cricket South Africa, raising concerns about the board’s financial security.

    The team itself were recently hammered in a Test series in India, and earlier this year were surprisingly beaten at home by Sri Lanka. Former captain Graeme Smith is now interim director of cricket and has appointed his former wicketkeeper Mark Boucher as coach so the Proteas will be hoping some form of stability at the top will enable the team to be somewhere near their best against England.

    It should be a fascinating series. I can’t wait.

  • The ECB’s new Twenty20 tournament could be make or break for cricket in the UK

     

    wright-surrey
    The new Twenty20 tournament would co-exist with the current T20 Blast

     

    The England and Wales Cricket Board have announced a Twenty20 competition to begin in 2020 – their attempt at getting more people interested in cricket.

    It has caused controversy, with some saying it will be the beginning of the end for county cricket and others saying it will keep the game alive in the UK.

    While the domestic game currently has 18 major counties, the proposed tournament will contain eight teams with squads of 15 players each. The teams will most likely take on the names of the cities they are based in, doing away with Surrey and Yorkshire and perhaps introducing London and Leeds.

    This eight team, city-based structure mirrors the hugely successful Big Bash in Australia and the Indian Premier League.

    The plan is for 36 matches to be played over 38 days in the school summer holidays, and for 8 of those matches to be live on free-to-air TV.

    The timing of the tournament could help to attract the best players in the world to it, as only England play regular international cricket at that time of year. Squads may miss England players but will be allowed 3 overseas stars.

    Here are a few thoughts I have about this proposal.

    County cricket is dying anyway

    The County Championship, the oldest and purest cricket championship, has been attended by almost nobody for decades. Counties have a few die-hard members, and some of them will get a few spectators in at the height of the holiday season, but other than that matches are played in front of empty grounds, rendering the four-day competition next to pointless. The Twenty20 tournament is not threatening to end the Championship, but might make enough money to keep it alive. Each county has been promised £1.3 million as part of the proposal.

     

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    A County Championship match takes place in front of not many people at Edgbaston

     

    Will enough matches be on free-to-air TV?

    English cricket has not been live on free-to-air TV since 2005. Since the ECB made the game available only to people who could afford a Sky Sports subscription the number of schoolchildren getting into cricket has dropped dramatically. They know they made a mistake, and while they can’t do anything about it until the end of the current rights deal in 2019, they have ringfenced 8 of the 36 matches for FTA TV in the proposal. I wonder, is that enough? Will it be eight of the early league fixtures, making it difficult to follow, or will it include the semi-finals and the final? Only time will tell, but it seems you’re still going to need a pay TV subscription to have much of an idea of what’s going on.

    Two Twenty20 tournaments could mean overkill

    The ECB are not proposing to replace the current T20 Blast with this city-based tournament – they intend for them to co-exist. This year, the T20 Blast (which does feature all 18 counties) will take place over seven weeks. The new tournament would be planned to start almost immediately after the Blast – I have a feeling even a massive cricket fan like me could get fed up of watching Twenty20 after 12 solid weeks of it.

    While there are questions to be answered, I think overall this is a positive step from the ECB and a genuine attempt to inject new life into cricket in this country. They’ve got three years to get it ready – the future of the sport could depend on them getting it right.

  • World Twenty20 2012 review: West Indies are the calypso kings

    The West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 36 runs in Colombo to take the 2012 World Twenty20 title.

    The West Indies are a side who for so long can be seen to be in great decline but always show the potential to pull off a shock. As it turned out, their triumph at the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka wasn’t so much of a shock as a well deserved victory for the best team in the tournament.

    Before the competition began, this blog picked Australia to be the champions, defeating the hosts Sri Lanka to win the tournament in Colombo. I was close – Australia lost to the West Indies in the semis, who went on to pip Sri Lanka to the title.

    It was a tournament that did struggle to get going with the very odd format of having three teams in each group. This meant that poor old Zimbabwe were out, having lost to both Sri Lanka and South Africa in the space of three days, before a lot of the teams had played their first game. This was simply a way to almost guarantee the top Test nations would progress and not be eliminated by an associate team pulling off an upset. Sadly, this meant there was a few dead games at the end of the group stages.

    The Super Eights were where the tournament got going – except for England. England didn’t really mount much of a defence to their title won in the Caribbean in 2010. Dogged by the ongoing saga surrounding Kevin Pietersen, they thrashed Afghanistan in their opener before being pummeled by India and beaten by the West Indies in a game that had Eoin Morgan – who scored 71 off 36 balls – been sent in earlier they would have won. Victory over New Zealand kept their hopes alive but their inability to play spin in subcontinental conditions meant they were knocked out after losing to Sri Lanka.

    The crowds tended to wait for the latter stages of the tournament before making an appearance – a lot of the early games were played in front of almost no one inside the grounds and that was with the cheapest ticket being just 14p. Yes, 14 pence. Their interest grew when the big guns took each other on and when the Asian sides were in action. There was a wonderful atmosphere at the Sri Lanka v Pakistan semi-final.

    The rain didn’t help either. The fact that this event was played in the rainy season in Sri Lanka left a few pundits wondering whether the ICC were here for the cricket or for the cash. At this time of year in that part of the world the rain tends to stay away until the evening – so what did the ICC do? Schedule the matches for the evenings of course. This meant the TV revenue could be maximised, but meant that more than one match was ruined by the weather – most notably Ireland were eliminated without getting a fair crack at the West Indies when the rain brought a premature end to the game and to their tournament.

    The West Indies have had internal struggles recently but no one can deny they have a frightening set-up for Twenty20 cricket. Chris Gayle, who is far more than just a slogger, showed his class by averaging 44 over the 7 matches he played, including a wonderful 75 not out carrying his bat in the semis against Australia. Marlon Samuels carried on his great form for 2012 – not least with 78 off 70 balls when his team were struggling in the final. They do tend to rely on the batsmen to build a massive total though – their bowling wasn’t the best and only spinner Narine was in the top 5 bowlers in the tournament.

    The World Twenty20 was a quick tournament for the game’s shortest format. It’s a bit of fun that isn’t taken too seriously, but means a lot to the players involved. For the West Indies supporters, who have had nothing to cheer since the ICC Champions Trophy victory of 2004, this will have come as welcome relief. We’ll do it all again in Bangladesh in two years’ time.