Twenty20 cricket is not really cricket, I propose renaming the sport Tricket. There are plenty of advantages to be had. Tricket is easier on the tongue than Twenty20 or even T20. Tricket fans will not have to join the staid and boring ranks of cricket fans. Fans of test cricket will not need to argue with addled tricket fans that tricket is not really cricket. Cricket players need not get confused about which format of the game they need to specialize in, they can just pick a new sport – Tricket.

Tricket will be free to change the rules of the game and not be bound by tradition. Tricket can add laser shows, music concerts, fireworks displays, roller coaster rides etc. to the mix. You can never be bored by a tricket match. Imagine a batsman hitting the ball, a fielder riding the roller coaster at that very moment, catches the ball just as the coaster hits a bend, the rock band hits a crescendo and the laser lights up the sky !

Given the crowded international cricket calendar, one of the formats is going to die. The current bet is on the one day format, it seems most likely to go extinct. But those are cricket’s problems, tricket on the other hand gets a fresh start, a brand new sport with a cool name and completely new calendar. Tricket fans need not wait for official cricket tours to go through time consuming test matches and one days.

Cricket has reached a fork in the road, too many formats, too many choices for players, fans and cricket boards alike. Fork tricket off as a new sport and may be cricket can be around longer.

I am watching the Cricket World Cup whenever I can. Reading some newspaper articles online have confirmed my initial impression that one day cricket has becoming boring. The way all international Cricket is played along teams representing nations, there is just too much national pride and emotion invested in these games. When these national teams constantly underperform, folks just lose interest in the game. Unfortunately, the number of teams that underperform due to poor management outnumber the one country that does seem to have it right – Australia. Having a single team of 15 players represent countries like India with a population of over a billion is just ridiculous.

If Cricket is to survive as a sport, it has to become less aligned along national lines. Look at how soccer works in Europe – that has to be the future of Cricket. Professional leagues, lots of money, lots of marketing. Players from these leagues come together once in 4 years to play for national pride in the World Cup. The leagues involve a lot more players than can be selected for a national team – a good thing. The Twenty20 form of the game is the only practical version that can survive at the league level. The current cricket world was built around national teams when playing Cricket was not a profession. Things have changed, but the establishment remains the same. Professionally managed leagues will also be more efficient, far more efficient than the archaic Cricket boards that run the sport in most countries.