Work has caught up to me… now that I have none of the comforts offered by a salaried job and have to work my way through for a living, it’s been apparent that cricket just got thrown out of my life for the last couple of weeks… not a single match was watched by me and the only sporting action which I had managed to catch was some glimpses on the amazing football euro championship tournament.

So the realization that has hit me is why it is extremely crucial for the twenty-20 format to take a much more significant and prominent role in world cricket today. There is endless amount of pessimism among cricket journalists and former players (mostly unknowns) on the state of cricket today and where it is heading towards. Almost everyone is signaling the death of test cricket due to twenty-20. And it sounds ridiculous, no different from the time when ODIs were introduced in the break away league several decades ago. But cricket proved them wrong and it will again.

Test cricket will remain. There is no question of that getting knocked out of the equation as it is the highest pinnacle which every fan and player loves about. However one thing is apparent that an overhaul is needed and improvements have to be introduced to address the concerns of dwindling audiences.

One day internationals just have to go and replaced with the more efficient, exciting and spectator friendly format, Twenty-20. At the end of the day, it is also time for the administrators to realize that in today’s fast frantic lifestyles that people lead, there is little time one can spend on recreational pastimes which would last for a whole day. Coupled with that is the amount of cricket being played, it is logical and sensible for the truncated format to replace ODIs.

Cricket around the world:

A cricketer, Yuvraj Singh will present the man of the match award at the Euro 2008 match between Switzerland and Portugal. WTF?

The most comical episode ever in the history of world cricket was the sight of Stanford landing his helicopter at Lords (The home of cricket) with his so-called cricket classical greats (read cronies), typical ‘men in black’ style. A blatant show of a cabinet filled with money was childish and was in such bad taste. The English media all of a sudden starts talking about how it helps impoverished cricketers. One can only let out a wicked smile. What this person in question wants in return is something none wants to address. Either way cricket needs a Stanford… definitely for comic relief.

Shoaib Akhtar’s ban got reduced to a couple of months. The PCB continues to be a totally clueless organisation. The only wish is to cut the drama each and every time and create such a big scene.

A PCB cricket administrator sends threatening emails to the team on performance. Goonda-raj alright. While there might be popular support for him on this episode, at the end of the day somebody should remind him what his job is and what has he done to his cup of tea before sipping someone else’s.

England are having fun thrashing the New Zealanders while Australia faces uncomfortable questions against West Indies but continues to win.

Andrew Symonds misses his team bus by ten minutes and is fined an undisclosed amount by Ricky, Clarke and co. A good way to recover all those unpaid beer bills.

And to finally spread the cheer, here is Merv hughes in an interview with cricinfo. Some of his simple views are amazing and still continue to draw out some chuckles. This guy rocks!