The 20/20 Impact

The 20/20 world cup has got off to a flamboyant start, spurred by the West Indian Chris Gayle's whirlwinds, raising hopes it will climax with a feisty finish. Slam-bang cricket fans can raise a toast, for now, 10 runs per over is par for the course. Clearly, "enough isn't" defines this brand of mean and macho cricket. No amount of runs is really enough, anything is chaseable, and the bowlers are there only to be taken to the cleaners, and to complete the picture.

Irrespective of India's fate, is 20/20 destined to be an idea whose time has come? Will it throw up newer and brighter superstars and benchmarks for the ODIs? On present evidence, it definitely promises to leave a huge impact. Next time when Chris Gayle, 20/20's first centurion takes guard in a 50-over ODI, viewers will not miss the buzz about him, while bowlers the world over would rather pray that they not end up as his prey!
Some things you can be sure of in life after 20/20: a) There will be more sixes scored in cricket b) Whatever the experts may say, the copybook style of cricket will take a giant step towards becoming an antique piece of fiction c) Bowlers will have to rely much more on their guile and get innovative, and less on their art.

Why? Because the art of bowling works on the possibility of the batsman violating the copybook, but when there is no copybook, its potency is easily de-fanged. And that's where guile and deception come in.

For bowlers in 20/20, honesty is the worst policy. Honest bowlers are like human bombs. They come, hurl a ball, get bombed. To survive in this cruel, merciless, ugly and football-style cricket, you need to be dishonest with the ball - soccer-style. The only difference is, there's no body contact here, and it's more a clash of the minds, the willow versus the red cherry. Where you, as a bowler, don't need to conquer the batsman's mind, but to deceive him.

Coming to India at the 20/20's, the jury is still out on whether it was really a wise thing to send a team without Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly. One-day cricket's most destructive and successful opening pair may be 30-plus, but they are still ticking along nicely, still value for money, and arguably, could have adapted nicely to the 20/20 grammar of playing cricket. Scoring tens runs per over is definitely not beyond them.