Twenty20 boundaries and the missing 5 weeks of the 4-day season

Why oh why do the boundaries have to be brought in for Twenty20? Sussex brought the boundaries in to less than 60m on all sides on Tuesday night and Essex had two boundaries just over 60m. It reduces the excitement of tightly run twos to the boundary fielders and it comes down to mostly singles or boundaries. Sixes need to be earnt, not hit off the splice and still clearing long on, or coming off the edge and clearing 3rd man. That's that particular rant over...but I have another!

5 weeks off in the middle of the season is really annoying for normal County spectators. Talking to a number of Steyning players on Tuesday, there was zero support for such a long Twenty20 period in the middle of the season, although everyone understood that the ECB wanted it to conincide with the school half-term and the longest days of the summer in terms of light. Time will tell if it's too much or if a 5 week gap in the County Championship creates problems. I can see the argument both ways and will be interested to see how it pans out....

My solution? Get more games in each day and reduce the number of (often relatively boring for those that can't get through) group matches, condensing it. There should be several games each evening cutting the 5 weeks down significantly in my opinion.