Cricket is definitely changing. For the worse, in my opinion. I wonder why the governing bodies of cricket can't see it. Old cricketers would certainly agree with me, but even 10 years ago they might have said cricket used to be better. That's how people are, they think everything was best in their time. Except for opportunities. We always hear how we have it easier. I won't argue against it, because certainly as the world is progressing, more opportunities are being created in careers.

I can see why some old cricketers used to feel that cricket was better even though I don’t agree. They feel it because cricket used to be more of a test, the bowlers challenged the batsmen more than they did 10 years ago. And the scales are only shifting further in the batsmen’s favour. Though England is not a heaven for batsmen like most other nations hosting cricket. Even in this day and age, teams can be all out for less than 100, as the recently concluded One-day series between England and Sri Lanka has proved.

I don’t really agree with them, because cricket certainly improved as far as I see it. Both the batting and the bowling improved. And the fielding has evolved the most. The catches that are being taken today were unimaginable a decade ago.

Cricket has been going the same way, agony of the bowlers increasing and the struggle of the batsmen decreasing. Sixes and phenomenal catching are the thing of the day. Why am I unhappy then? If I believed a decade ago that cricket is getting better, why don’t I feel so now?

I’m just unhappy because this new form of cricket, Twenty20 is spoiling the other two formats. At first, I had mixed views about it. My first reaction, “What, 20 over games? Might be good for domestic cricket.” I found it a bit interesting as the first time I heard of it, I saw Stuart Broad bowling for Leicestershire and boy wasn’t he impressive. It was the first time I saw him so naturally my interest was heightened. It was the summer of 2006.

8 years later, I feel Twenty20 is the worst thing to happen to cricket. Even earlier, I didn’t like the idea of a Twenty20 series, 3 of them being played on a tour. I heard the cricketers too first thought of it as a joke. Why wouldn’t they? Children play 5-10 overs games. I -thought grown-ups were made for sturdier stuff than that. The audience has turned a joke into the most popular form of cricket.

What’s sad is that one-day cricket is losing out the most. There are old fellas and also people like me who prefer both Tests and One-day to Twenty20, but at times I’ve found Twenty20 to be more interesting than one-day and that’s because of the interests of cricketers themselves losing interest in one-day.

Who would like one-day now? Some prefer the fast paced 20 over action which only requires you to give as much time as you would to a football game and there are others, who have been fans of Test cricket and the legacy that comes with it for many years. This tells us there are two types of people only. Either those who like history and tough tests or those who like to see sixes and are happy to have the time to watch a full cricket game in 3 hours.

Everyone would agree the IPL has changed cricket. For better or for worse, remains a topic to be discussed. Surely, it is fast-paced and more suited to the younger generation and can help in increasing cricket's popularity. However, the people who take interest in IPL are not cricket fans and they will never be.

I'm not totally against IPL. It's not like I think it should be banned or would start a protest against it. It can't be banned of course. People wait for the IPL more than any other cricket tournament or series. If they enjoy it, who am I to complain?

But, I don't think it's a good thing to happen to cricket. It's a lot of things but it just isn't cricket. It has taken the focus of the players and the fans away from country matches, which is pathetic. It's not like Big Bash or the Twenty20 championship in county.

Both of them are domestic tournaments while IPL attracts more attention and disrupts the International calendar. The parties and high pay interest some players more than playing for their countries. You might say there is nothing wrong with it. If the players and fans prefer IPL, what's the harm?

But I say there is. Humans don't always know what's best for them. Like, people prefer reading novels over course books but that doesn't mean novels are better for them. I don't think the IPL is good for the world. And most importantly, it just isn't cricket.

Being an England cricket fan, I used to enjoy England's Test matches the most. Now, I have lost interest in cricket as the interest in International cricket has decreased. Also because the players themselves aren't as interested in it as they used to be. Playing for your country just doesn't mean as much as it used to. Since, cricket is going around all year, fans have lost interest as well.

Some regard baseball as the most conservative sport next to cricket, others settle for golf or tennis. All of them are changing and so is cricket. Called as the "Gentleman's game", cricket consisted of whites, sun and hard work for fast bowlers. The change started with one-day cricket and became more prominent with the birth of Twenty20 cricket. One-day cricket brought the colours, day-night games and most importantly, the reduction to 50 overs from 450 overs. Twenty20 brought in the moolah, popularity, a prospect of exposing non-playing nations like US to cricket. I like all these changes, including the one I'm going to talk about, except Twenty20. One thing which has really bashed conservatism in cricket is nudity. Yes, nudity. Not many cricketers have posed nude but Jimmy Anderson is someone who has done it thrice so far. The first time he did it, it was for Cancer charity, with fellow England cricketers Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad. The second time, he was  supporting Give Up Clothes for Good, a TK Maxx, HomeSense and Cancer Research UK campaign for children’s cancer research www.tkmaxx.com. Have you shopped for clothes in TK Maxx? Well, they’d rather go naked...

The third time, he posed for gay lifestyle magazine, Attitude. Here's what he said:

Kevin Pietersen has opted to play for KwaZulu-Natal in October as the county season ends on September 18. Pietersen used to play for them before making his way into the Nottinghamshire team and later to the England team. He has expressed his desire to play as much cricket as possible before Ashes. And South Africa will provide the ideal preparation for it. But he won't be paid for it. Owais Shah, who was in form when he was dropped from the England side after last year's Champions Trophy, will play for Cape Cobras after being released by Middlesex.

Referring to my post, I'm with KP, are you?, I would like to say that even though most people don't agree with me, I stand by my opinions. Pietersen was not performing but I think that Twenty20 and one-day would have been ideal to bring him back to form. To those who think Pietersen did not deserve a place in the side, he couldn't have been worse than Bopara and before the 2nd Twenty20, I'd have said Kieswetter too. The Tests are a lot different, they really test you, put you under pressure. I understand that ECB dropped him to let him play county cricket for a while and also because England are beating Pakistan easily. None of Pakistan's Tests have been drawn in recent times, given their inexperienced batsman and inconsistency. Twenty20 and one-day does provide them a chance to finish the tour with satisfaction because it's easier to win in shorter formats.

England vs Pakistan 2nd Twenty20: 7 September
But that hasn't happened on this tour yet as Pakistan lost another Twenty20 without causing any trouble. From the first ball to the last, it never seemed like Pakistan has any chance of winning. They made one change to their side, bringing in Mohammad Hafeez in the place of Wahab Riaz. Bizarre. How many batsmen do they need for a 20 over game? Their opposition, England played 5 bowlers in both the matches and they played Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal along with Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez and Razzaq. The exciting thing in the match was Umar Akmal vs Graeme Swann. On the 4th ball of the 9th over, the first ball which Swann bowled to Akmal, he hit it for a six! In Swann's next over, (11th over) Hafeez faced the first ball, on the 2nd ball, Akmal again hit it for a six. But this wasn't going to last long as Swanny, the cunning witch, bowled him on the very next delivery. Dumbfounding. And this was it, Pakistan were left struggling at 44/5 and England never looked back. Pakistan were bowled out for 89. England bowlers shared the wickets with Sidebottom, Broad, Swann taking 2 wickets each, Bresnan 3 and Yardy being superb again conceding only 10 runs off his 4 overs.

I had criticised him in my last post but Kieswetter looked impressive but was ran out by Umar Akmal. I wouldn't give Akmal much credit, Kieswetter shouldn't have tried to take a sneaky single. There is not much to talk about England's batting. Collingwood didn't score much but still top scored with 21 and Morgan and Yardy finished it. David Lloyd has regarded this Twenty20 as the worst Twenty20 match he has ever seen. There wasn't much crowd but I think I have seen a worse Twenty20, England vs West Indies on England tour of West Indies last year. It seemed like England played only for formality. No fun.

Related posts: World Twenty20 Champions beat Pakistan effortlessly
                        I'm with KP, are you?
                       Astonishment at its best, daring ECB drops Kevin Pietersen

England vs Pakistan 1st Twenty 20: 5 September
Amid all the controversies, a week after a 4 Test series, England took the field against Pakistan, who were without Amir, Asif and Butt. It took me a while to start enjoying the game. Not because of the match fixing but only because I had got accustomed to watching them in whites. I started enjoying when Swann came to bowl, in the 7th over and the fun did not end there. Swann took 2 wickets in his first 2 overs. What Twenty20 brings is Collingwood and athletic fielding. Have always loved the way Colly captains the side. Uses the bowlers well and doesn't put much pressure on anyone. He is never tensed himself and inspires with his scintillating fielding. On the other hand, there were quite a few changes to the Pakistan side which played at Lord's. Shahzaib Hasan (the centurian against Somerset), Fawad Alam (scored 97 against Somerset on Thursday), Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul replaced Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Salman Butt, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif. Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Irfan will join the team for ODIs. England went with their strategy of ICC World Twenty and dropped James Anderson. Broad is a fiery bowler in Twenty20 and ODIs so it was obvious to pick him. Swann has been very successful in all formats and looks promising. So it comes down to Jimmy, Shahzad, Sidebottom, Bresnan if Yardy plays as he did on Sunday, rightly so. Jimmy and Sidebottom are both swing bowlers but Jimmy goes for some runs. I remember Collingwood used to do an excellent job in using Jimmy. When Jimmy would go for some runs, he would take Jimmy out of the attack and bring him back when the pressure would be on the opposition in both Twenty20 and ODIs. Anderson is better than Bresnan but Bresnan isn't too bad in Twenty20 and One-day since he is economical. Shahzad, Anderson, Sidebottom, Broad, Swann are all wicket-takers so it helps to have Yardy and Bresnan along with them. I think England also consider Bresnan's batting but in Twenty20 bowlers can't do much with the bat. Even Afridi (No.6) couldn't do much as he went for 16* and Razzaq kept waiting. You don't need 10 batsman for 20 overs, hard to score when wickets fall anyway.

England won the match rather easily with Morgan top scoring with 38* and Yardy doing well with 35*. Davies batted brilliantly for his 33. The guy looks nice and calm and he is good behind the stumps too. Kieswetter shouldn't have been playing in International cricket now. He needs a break from the pressure of the Internationals and must go back to Somerset. Shoaib Akhtar bowled pretty well, didn't look fit though. He was tired after bowling 3 overs. Surprisingly, England dropped a few catches. They were good in stopping the boundaries but Bresnan and Wright dropped one catch each. Broad dropped a difficult chance off his own bowling so he cannot be blamed for that.

Match fixing
There has been too much talk on this issue. Former cricketers, cricketers who still play, everybody has been commenting on this issue. Media, bloggers and websites have been busy covering it. They got news. But I reckon there are better things to do. The fans should rather concentrate on cricket. The last thing I read was Vettori calling for a life ban. The last notable thing I read was Pakistan’s high commissioner in London Wajid Hasan saying that he sensed a conspiracy in ICC’s decision to suspend the players. He said the players had opted out of the rest of the tour and ECB chairman Giles Clarke was happy with it. He said that after ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat and ICC president Sharad Pawar talked, they prepared a 5 page notice, handed it to the players and they were suspended. Now, we don't know what the truth is here but I did hear about the players opting out before hearing about the suspension. I don't like Sharad Pawar, don't know which fools wanted him as president. Remember, he is the one who was pushed off the stage by Ponting. I wonder if anyone involved with ECB or any former player can be pushed off the stage. Pawar got no respect.

Wouldn't be wrong if Pakistan is banned from cricket, their own players like Yaseer Hameed and Rashid Latif are speaking out against their team mates. Some suggesting that "they do it in every match". PCB are still trying to save the players though. Gross. I don't wish to talk about this issue anymore. I am, therefore, burying this topic.

Twitter Tirade
Meanwhile, Kevin Pietersen and Dimitri Mascarenhas have both been fined by ECB and Hampshire respectively. I don't think there was a need to fine KP since he already apologised for it. Mascarenhas has also apologised now. Take a look at his tweet:

Chairman of selectors came to Liverpool and didn't even come and say hi.. what a p****.. Doesn't take much to say hello does it?

England vs Pakistan 2nd Twenty20: 7 September
Preview
Fielding has been a big difference between these two sides over the years. On Sunday, Pakistan's fielding was as usual, say, bad, that's the least I can say about it. England did a good job in ground fielding but were unlike themselves when the catches came. Kieswetter will play as the only ones who missed out on Sunday were fast bowlers Ajmal Shahzad and James Anderson. There is a long time for the next Twenty20 (after the Ashes) so Kieswetter will go and play for Somerset for a while anyway. Since they dropped KP and Ian Bell will play for Warwickshire before returning to International cricket, the only option in my view was to play Prior as a batsman, wouldn't have been a bad idea. Pakistan's batsmen could not score enough runs even though they only lost 4 wickets so Afridi and Razzaq must move up the order.

England take on Pakistan at 17:00 GMT tonight. Cheers!

So, England have won an ICC event finally. Now, no one can say that my team have never won an ICC event during banters. Sorry for the late post, didn't have internet. And I could only watch a bit of the semi-final and final live. Watched the earlier games though. I really enjoyed watching them this time, Morgan, Wright, KP and Kieswetter were awesome. Others played well too and Lumb and Kieswetter scored almost the same in some matches but I really enjoyed Kieswetter's reactions while stumping. The victory is rather unbelievable and pleasant. I got to know about it through a news channel the next morning. I've seen England play superbly and lost many times. Referring to the post, "England vs Bangladesh 2nd ODI" I would like to say that Bangladesh wasn't the better side in that match, Morgan proved that England is the better side. No one wants their team to lose but the truth is that the love for your team increases when your team plays well and loses. Now I know why I love England so much. Bangladesh has moments of awesome play in many matches but they fail to win, except against Zimbabwe off course. Bangladesh had the highest percentage of winning ODIs last year. They played mostly against Zimbabwe. Looking forward to the game against Scotland. Cheers for the World Twenty20 win. Until next time, take care.

When I first heard about the concept, I was very critical of it, mostly because I was worried about the bowlers. And 10 wickets for 20 overs doesn't seem like a good idea to me. The first Twenty20 game I seriously watched was the semifinal between Leicestershire and Essex in the Twenty20 cup 2006. I also saw young Stuart Broad for the first time during that match. It got me interested, so I watched the final between Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Broady took David Hussey's wicket, which impressed me a lot. Now I'm a female, I can't keep talking about a bloke without mentioning his looks, he looked awesome, he had cold which made him look even more cute. I loved the way Nasser Hussain was commentating at that time, he kept saying, "Hit the deck hard young man, hit the deck hard". I just hoped this young bowler would come into the England side soon. And so he did, so he did. He debuted at Bristol in a Twenty20 game against Pakistan. He took 2 wickets in 2 deliveries, Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan. He also made his One day debut very soon, at Cardiff in the series following the Twenty20. Only 7 overs were bowled in the Pakistan innings, but that was enough for Broad to pick his first wicket in One Day Internationals, Shoaib Malik.
But his career was not going to be so fruitful, he was smacked for six sixes in an over by India's stupid slogger, Yuvraj Singh. I don't thin' he bowled that badly and Yuvraj Singh didn't show any bravery by hitting a 21 year old  bowler for sixes  in a small ground (Grounds in South Aftrica are petite) when his on-going battle was with Freddie Flintoff. Fred even got him out in the next over. And I don't think you can be called a great batsman for hitting sixes in a small ground when your average in Tests is 35. Twenty20 can never make anyone's career, it can only break career. I'm glad that it didn't effect Stuart badly. I'm sure that if an Indian bowler would have given that many runs, he would have been dropped, FOREVER.
Now, don't get me wrong people, I don't hate this format, i enjoy it, I'm just not in support of the Twenty20 tournaments. Too much of anything is toxic. I don't mind one or two Twenty20s in a tour but I don't see the need for a Twenty20 tournament, Twenty20 doesn't always ensure that the best team wins and obviously 20/9 is even worse. Also, there are too many tournaments in cricket these days, which has led to the reduction in series between countries. This year, we already saw IPL and ICC World Twenty20 and there is more, APL, Champions Trophy, Champions League Twenty20. I know some would argue that out of these, only ICC World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy are part of the FTP but it's quite tragic that Dwayne Bravo played in the IPL when West Indies were struggling in England. Personally speaking, I don't want to see any of these, not even Champions Trophy, only ICC World Cup (One Day offcourse) is good. Until next time, take care, Cheers.