There is no shortage of love for the ICC World Twenty20.
It pours out of living rooms, broadcasting houses, and the towering hoardings on Dhaka’s streets, engulfing the tournament in its sweetness. Two-and-a-half weeks of compact, souped-up cricket, produced by the world’s most dashing players: what, in the modern fan’s eyes, is not to be smitten by?
It is remarkable that a competition only seven years old should feel this welcome. It has, perhaps, to do with Twenty20’s own welcoming nature. How else would Brad Hodge earn a national call-up after six years out, when all his 17,000 first-class runs could not help? How would Brad Hogg, a sunny 43-year-old who had once retired in 2008, have found a spot on the same roster as the now-withdrawn Mitchell Johnson, Australia’s missile-purveying, fire-breathing Ashes hero.
And how much longer would West Indies, a bunch of cricketers dire in whites but electrifying over 20 overs, have had to wait for glory before the world? Thank god, is the feeling in some quarters then, for the World Twenty20.
The fifth edition comes alive in Bangladesh’s overwhelming capital city on Friday, when India and Pakistan go head to head. A tastier beginning to the Super 10 could not have been envisioned.
Acclimatisation advantageThe neighbours were here only a couple of weeks ago and will feel at an advantage in Group 2, whence only two teams may progress to the semifinals. India did not make the final of the Asia Cup, but that will not weigh on the team’s collective mind. For M.S. Dhoni is back, as are Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, whose reputations in T20 cricket are daunting.
Neither India nor Pakistan will feel too comfortable, though.
For in direct competition are Australia, West Indies, and — it seems most likely — Bangladesh via the first round.
Australia could not be feeling better about itself as a cricket nation.
A series win in South Africa has followed the emphatic Ashes triumph at home. Johnson’s absence, from an infected toe, will hurt, but in Mitchell Starc the team has a splendid death-overs bowler.
David Warner, Aaron Finch, Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell and Hodge form a batting assembly teams will cringe from.
West Indies, the defending champion, arrives without Kieron Pollard, a cricketer built for the T20 game.
But 12 players, including the incomparable Chris Gayle, remain from the victorious squad of two years ago; it should help.
To Bangladesh, hosting its first major sporting event independently, with an estimated $40m spent on the venues, the success of the World Twenty20 will be defined by more than just the results on the field. There were concerns over safety, in the wake of the unrest in the country a couple of months ago, but they have now been allayed.
Sri Lanka is favouriteProceedings in Group 1 get underway from Saturday in Chittagong, where Sri Lanka appears the strongest of the teams, not least for its familiarity with conditions. Runner-up last time, Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup win and its terrific bowling unit ought to cast it as a favourite for the title.
Number one in the ICC’s T20 rankings it isn’t for no reason. England stumbles into the World Twenty20, minus confidence and Kevin Pietersen. Player-of-the-tournament in the Caribbean in 2010, when England won, he now finds himself expelled while others less gifted plod along.
It takes very little, though, for things to suddenly fall in place.
Then there are two teams from the southern hemisphere in New Zealand and South Africa, who check in on the back of contrasting results.
However alien the pitches and mysterious the spinners before them, it would not be far-fetched to suggest that either side could win the thing. Indeed, it is one of the delights of the World Twenty20 that it is so.
