Cricket: Twenty20 success brings ODI rethink

Twenty20's greatest gift to the sport of cricket, rather than entertainment, might be that it forces a rethink of the way traditional one-day cricket is played.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden indicated to the Herald on Sunday yesterday that they may look to do away with official drinks breaks in one-day cricket next season.

That can't come quickly enough for some.

Early last week former Black Caps and now Otago coach Glenn Turner wrote to Snedden bemoaning the constant breaks in play during the State Shield competition.

"Turner wrote: 'Do you realise now that in a one-day game there's two official drinks breaks and about 10 other times when players are having drinks brought on to the field?'."

Turner's viewpoint seems to be a clear indication that a trial could well be on the cards for a drinks-less State Shield next season.

"In the VB Series we've seen Inzamam [ul-Haq] having trouble getting through his overs all because there's not enough concentration on keeping the flow of the thing going," Snedden said.

"That is the lesson from Thursday night: there is the ability to keep the flow of the whole thing going quickly.

"There is a hint that if players are going to be rushing out with drinks we'll actually flag the normal drinks breaks. These will be the lessons that gradually sink in.

"The biggest issue out of this whole thing is the effect it will have on the one-day game and on what we have to do to ensure the one-day game continues to prosper," he said.

Snedden, an interested spectator of Thursday's show, said even as an onlooker there was little or not time to relax between the action.

Batsmen faced their first ball little more than a minute after a dismissal and the game moved quickly between overs as a result.

Many of the players were surprised at how tired they were following a game that lasted less than three hours.

With a shade under 30,000 people at Eden Park the evening was an unqualified success, perhaps doubling NZC's budgeted expectations but where Twenty20 fits into New Zealand's cricketing landscape remains a conundrum Snedden is not yet ready to solve.

NZC will watch closely how Twenty20 takes off in further international matches but the challenge will be how it moves on from one-off situations.

A tour opener might be its natural place rather than trying to extend the format into domestic competitions but at this stage an open mind is being kept on all avenues because sport seems to be moving inexorably towards entertainment.

"We've got to be careful here to understand that this form of the game is largely entertainment," Snedden said. "Test match cricket, in New Zealand particularly, is very highly balanced towards the game itself and it's not regarded as being hugely entertaining.

"One-day cricket falls about 50-50 between the game and entertainment, where this one is loaded pretty heavily in favour of entertainment and the cricket aspect lags behind that."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY