In recent weeks, the Friends Provident t20 has taken plenty of stick for its sheer never-endingness… if that is a word.
Last night’s quarter-final, between Essex and Lancashire, however, was an advert for everything that is great about a format that first spread its wings in 2003.
Back then it was a novelty, and even as recently as last year the crowds were flocking in, but a combination of two World T2os and an IPL in the past 12 months and nearly twice as many group games as 2009′s incarnation has left everyone a little flat.
The atmosphere was anything but at Essex last night, when two excellent teams fought tooth and nail to make it to Finals day. Excellent cricket was complemented by a partisan crowd, players slipping and sliding in the damp conditions, more injuries than you can shake a crutch at and a grandstand finish. If T20 cricket was always like this, then it wouldn’t be a problem.
However, sometimes Somerset have to play Northants (as they did on Monday evening)… and that’s when things get ugly. As often as we get a corker, we get a stinker.
The solution? Well, surely less is more, isn’t it?
