Big benefits await Bravo and Marsh
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
AFP
Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the impact Twenty20 is having on the game.
It’s not just to domestic and international calendars but to the individuals, the players, who are tumbling down the rabbit hole with little idea as to where it will all end. Dwayne Bravo and Shaun Marsh would appear to have little in common.
Bravo, an all-rounder from the village of Santa Cruz in Trinidad, is diamond-encrusted, extroverted and counts the likes of top-selling reggae artist Beenie Man among his friends. Marsh is a quietly spoken batsman from Narrogin whose most obvious link to celebrity is his father, Geoff.
But it is these two players, perhaps more than any other outside India, who best represent the "Twenty20 effect" on the current generation. Afforded opportunities beyond anything their forebears could have expected, Bravo and Marsh, both 24, are the poster children for cricket's newest format and are reaping the benefits.
In the same paper Philip Derriman states the case for a stand at the SCG to be named after Richie Benaud.
In Supercricket, Neil Manthorp feels Dale Steyn's gaffe on his IPL experience didn't intend to hurt anyone, much like Lance Klusener's vain attempt to ease the pain after South Africa's painful 2003 World Cup exit.
It was Zulu's version of the famous Boris Becker quote when the German tennis star was eliminated from Wimbledon in the first round when he was defending champion and tournament favourite: "I lost a tennis match, I didn't kill anyone. Nobody died," Becker told a stunned room full journalists.
Peter English is former Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo