County Cricket / Andrew Hughes / 24 July 2010 / 1

The world's first domestic Twenty20 competition is in its eighth year and is bigger than ever. Andrew Hughes asks whether the expanded tournament has been a success and assesses the chances of the remaining eight teams.

English cricket pioneered domestic Twenty20 back in 2003 and the original Twenty20 Cup proved to be extremely popular. Inevitably, this popularity has led to steady expansion of the competition and this year's version, the Friends Provident T20 is the biggest yet, featuring two groups of nine counties and a total of 151 games, most of them packed into a window of six weeks in the middle of the summer.

The success of the Indian Premier League has driven some of this expansion, but whereas the IPL is built around just eight franchises in a cricket-mad country, the English version has eighteen counties all desperate for their piece of the pie and a much smaller potential audience. Inevitably, saturation point has been reached this year and attendance figures for domestic Twenty20 games are markedly down.

It hasn't helped that some counties have been charging £15-£20 a ticket. Hoping to sell out eight home games in six weeks during a recession at those prices is totally unrealistic. And the packed schedule has resulted in players slogging up and down motorways with little time to prepare or recuperate. Some county chiefs, such as Paul Sheldon at Surrey have conceded that the format of the competition is all wrong and it is to be hoped that next year's Friend's Provident T20 is a slimmed down version.

Another change introduced for this year's competition was an increase in the number of overseas players permitted in each squad. It was felt that this might lead to a more unpredictable tournament, but in fact, the established Twenty20 teams have dominated once again. Six of this year's quarter finalists reached the same stage of the Twenty20 Cup last year, including last year's runners-up, Somerset, who are [4.6] favourites to go one better this time around.

Marcus Trescothick's men made a poor start and surprisingly, their powerful batting line-up has not really dominated in the way that many expected. Their strength has been in the bowling department with Alonso Thomas and Keiron Pollard the top two wicket takers in the tournament. However, punters wishing to back the Sabres at [1.51] for their quarter-final with Northamptonshire on Tuesday should remember that Pollard has flown home to play in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament and will only be available for Somerset should they reach finals day on August 14.

In Tuesday's other quarter final, Lancashire will fancy their chances of squeezing past Essex. The Eagles changed captains early in the tournament with James Foster taking over from Mark Pettini and this appeared to galvanise the team who finished runners up in the South group. However, they will be without their main bowler Danish Kaneria as well as the still-injured Ryan ten Doeschate and though Lancashire have been inconsistent, they are moving in the right direction. At [2.1] the Lightning represent good value to reach Finals day for the fourth time in eight attempts.

Monday's quarter-finals are just as intriguing. Hampshire boast the tournament's top run-scorer in Jimmy Adams and will be desperate to qualify for Finals day at the Rose Bowl, but will be up against it taking on an in-form Warwickshire side who won their last six games to top the North group. Meanwhile Nottinghamshire have an excellent chance of knocking out holders Sussex, who seem to be faltering at precisely the wrong time. In Dirk Nannes and David Hussey, the Outlaws have two of the best Twenty20 players in the world and they look worth a bet at [5.9] in the tournament winners market.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

(1)

1. parag gorkhiya | 25 June 2011

   good hitting

:

:

:

?

: