Tony Becca

The first Twenty20 World Cup involving the 12 full member teams plus associates Kenya and Scotland bowls off in South Africa on September 11 and the promise is that for 13 days and 27 matches it will be cricket, lovely cricket, and especially so for those who love to see the ball racing to the boundary or flying over it two, or three, or even four times per over.

That has been the case since 2003 when this form of cricket was launched in England, that has been the case around the world in the years after that and even though there will be no Mohammad Yousuf, no Sachin Tendulkar and no Rahul Dravid, with batsmen like Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds of Australia, Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh of India, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka, Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and Ravi Bopara of England, Graeme Smith, Loots Bosman and Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa, plus Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels and depending on which side he wakes up on, Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies, that is what is expected in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town.

Although there are those who will have no part of Twenty20 cricket for the simple reason that as far as they see it, it is a masquerade, it is sacrilegious and it is not even as good as "curried goat" cricket.

Play the real thing

While it can hardly be considered good enough to develop those who aspire to play the real thing - to play Test cricket, based on its pull around the world, Twenty20 has been like a blessing from above as far as attracting people to the sport is concerned.

It is spreading the gospel of the game, it is bringing money into the game, and in this day and age, no one, especially so those who love the game and particularly so those who are drawn to the game because of the sound of bat on ball and the basic, the fundamental contest between ball and bat, can deny that.

The sound of the bat hitting the ball is the same in Test cricket and in one-day cricket as it is in the Twenty20 version and the technique to hit the ball properly is the same in Test cricket and in one-day cricket as it is in the Twenty20 version of the game.

The difference is that in Twenty20 cricket there is a need to hit the ball more often and probably harder and therefore farther than there is in Test cricket and in one-day cricket, because of that chances, more chances, have to be taken, because of that, sometimes, most times, technique is ignored and that is what irritates the purists.

Unlike the 36 hours for a Test match or the seven hours or so for a one-day match, Twenty20 lasts for just about three hours and that is one reason why so many prefer that version to the other two.

To them, it is short and spicy because every ball counts, it calls for creative batting and because every ball and every run count, every ball, every minute is important. In other words, every ball is an event.

As we look toward the excitement, the thrills and the spills, the question is who will win in South Africa. And based on their experience at the domestic level, it should be England.

With England's record on the international scene reading two wins and four losses out of six, however, Australia with three and two out of five, New Zealand with two, two and one tie out of five, South Africa with two and three out of five, Sri Lanka with two and one out of three, Pakistan with one and one out of two, India with one out of one, and the West Indies with one and one plus one tie out of three, that is difficult to call.

As they would have been for a Test series and for a one-day series, however, Australia, with batsmen like Matthew Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey and Symonds, with pace bowlers like Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, and Shaun Tait, plus Symonds and Shane Watson must be heavily favoured to add the Twenty20 title to the Test and the one-day titles.

Things do not look good

Carlton Baugh - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

As far as the West Indies are concerned the shorter the version the better the chances of the underdogs, things do not look good for them, an the cupboard is weak the selectors have said that they looked long and hard before making the selections, they could have done a little better.

For a start, Richard Kelly, a good bowler, a good fielder and a capable batsman, should have been selected over Pedro Collins who cannot field, cannot bat, and as well as swings the ball, as much as he should have been in the Test team, he tends to go to pieces as far as length and control are concerned and he could be a liability in his four overs.

And why no Travis Dowlin, why no Kieron Pollard - the young man who was selected from nowhere into the World Cup team and afforded one opportunity.

What is interesting, however, is why was Denesh Ramdin selected over one like Carlton Baugh Jr.?

Even if he is better than Baugh as a wicketkeeper, Ramdin is not that much better, as a batsman, again if he is better he does not hit the ball as well as Baugh, and as far as development and exposure, not to mention income, are concerned, with Ramdin playing in both the Test and one-day teams, unless the selectors, who are not the same ones who considered him a gem a couple years ago, are through with him, Baugh, still a young man at 25, deserves a go in the Twenty20 team.

When one looks at the success of right-arm leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed in the Twenty20 tournament in England, when one looks at the fact that the top four bowlers in the international Twenty20 statistics are all spin bowlers, when one looks at the fact that New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka have selected at least two spin bowlers and when one looks at the fact that England have selected Jeremy Snape, once again, and especially with the team lacking real quality fast bowlers, one has to wonder just what the selectors have against spin bowlers.

Snape, a 34-year-old offspinner who played a few one-day games for England and who last played in 2001, is a sports psychologist who worked with the team in that capacity during the last World Cup. He plays a few Twenty20 for Leicestershire and he flights the ball so high that his stock delivery is called the "moon ball".