Graham Napier is the latest of a new breed of Twenty20 stars

Twenty20 / Andrew Hughes / 15 July 2008 / Leave a Comment

Andrew Hughes highlights Graham Napier as the latest player to use Twenty20 as a springboard for opportunities in other forms of the game. But will the time come when players set out to become Twenty20 players at the start of their careers?

Twenty20 represented a fresh cricket frontier, and in the rush of pioneers there were many surprises. Selectors were tempted by specialists and there were international opportunities for a clutch of veterans such as Snape, Maddy and Nixon, who all got late and unexpected shots at international glory entirely because of their early successes in the thrash and dash with Leicestershire. This week has seen another unknown county pro leap to the front of our consciousness, thanks to Twenty20. The redoubtable Graham Napier followed up his window-shattering 152 against Sussex with a buccaneering performance to carry Essex into the semi-finals of the Twenty20 Cup and earned himself a place in the thirty-man squad for the ICC Trophy.

But the story of his spectacular rise to prominence is no longer typical. Over the last five years, the skills required to thrive in this format have been disseminated more widely. Rather than offering some old codgers a last tilt at glory, Twenty20 is now taken seriously as an alternative means of promotion to the international side. Luke Wright became an England regular on the back of his Twenty20 Cup displays last year. In the Caribbean, youngsters Andre Fletcher and Kieron Pollard both entered the headlines and the selectors thoughts through their feats in the Stanford 20/20. And in India, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha and Manpreet Gony have all found youthful promise converted into international recognition, through the fast track of Twenty20.

It is unlikely to end there. The gravitational pull of Twenty20 is sucking in such quantities of money that it is pulling the game's traditional loyalties out of alignment. What in the past was a novelty and in the present a third route to international recognition may in the future become an end in itself. The signs are there already. India's wicketkeeper, Dhoni, in looking to rest his creaking back and bruised fingers, chose not the six weeks of domestic cricket in the IPL but the Test tour to Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankans meanwhile protested to their President when it appeared they might have to play Test matches in England rather than Twenty20 in India next year.

It isn't hard to see a Twenty20 dominated future. Youngsters contemplating a cricket career must make hard decisions and it is unduly romantic to suppose that money isn't a factor. If the big rewards and high profiles are to be found in the IPL or the Stanford Twenty20, then coaches and parents would be remiss if they didn't steer their charges in that direction. And in the far future, youngsters drawn to the game by the bling and thrill of Twenty20 might simply have no interest in or knowledge of the longer game. Cricket boards that try to enforce the primacy of five-day cricket cannot succeed and will simply hasten a schism in the game. In this scenario, Test cricket would die from within, not, as is often imagined, from dwindling audiences, but from the absence of young players with the skills or the inclination to play it.

Of course, such apocalyptic visions hinge entirely on the belief that Twenty20 will inevitably continue its world-conquering expansion. Surprisingly though, the sixth renewal of the original tournament finds the format looking a little worn at the edges.

This year's Twenty20 Cup has not been a roaring success. Early matches were marked by disappointing crowds and just when the tournament was coming to life, a rash of administrative incompetence has brought chaos. Quarter finalists Yorkshire were initially thrown out of the competition, a punishment reduced to a two-point penalty on appeal.

Their crime was to field an ineligible player against Nottinghamshire, who in turn were slated to take Yorkshire's place. But the effect of the appeal decision was to send Glamorgan through instead, on net run rate. The upshot of all this upheaval is that there are currently seven teams in the Betfair winner market. But neither Yorkshire nor Nottinghamshire are going to challenge the appeal decision so their odds will be heading rapidly towards the [1000.0] mark. Resurrected Glamorgan ([8.0]) will face Durham ([5.1]) in the last quarter final whilst Middlesex ([4.4]) Essex [3.8] and holders Kent [3.85] are already in the semis. Probably.