Bah humbug

Well, our Saturday league game has been abandoned due to the rain, so I thought I'd have a whinge instead. Here goes...

Why did we have to accept the term 'Twenty-twenty' (or those ghastly hybrid derivatives 'Twenty20' and 'T20') so readily into the popular vernacular? I grudgingly accept that it is an unavoidable part of the branding of the format for such events as the IPL and the current World Cup, but why, for instance, did this have to carry over into any old random evening pub game?

For those of us who grew up playing colts cricket, it wasn't exactly a new format, but we called them 'twenty-over matches'. And, as a young colt, twenty overs was practically a test match so big totals and hitting out were hardly a feature (I still remember the first time I ever did anything useful in a cricket match, guiding my under-11 team through the chase of the formidable target of 45 thanks to my stellar 12 not out, including my first ever four - a straight drive to the shortest of short boundaries, thanks for asking...).

Anyway now, it seems, we casual cricketers call these things 'Twenty20', and even refer to 'Forty40' and the like. Given the slightly complicated over allocations for our Saturday afternoon club games, I wonder if we could rebrand our league as a 'Fifty-two48'? tournament?

Right, rant over. I feel much better now, thank you.