How T20s became a serious business for Australia
Twenty20 began as a giggle for Australia, who treated it as a third-rate concept and preferred to save their focus for Tests and ODIs

It's all in the delivery: Glenn McGrath rolls out an underarm joke in Australia's light-hearted Twenty20 debut • Hamish Blair/Getty Images
17 February, 2005
New Zealand and Australia turned up to a retro costume party to christen the new fad in Auckland and Ricky Ponting summed up the affair. "I think it is difficult to play seriously," he said. Ponting was the star with 98 off 55 balls, including five sixes, but never matched the performance again, or warmed to the style of play.
13 June, 2005
Australia didn't realise it then, but the start of their Ashes defeat began at Southampton during the second Twenty20 international. They scored only 79 after being 31 for 7, and misread the mood of England. Damien Martyn outlined the outlook of the coach John Buchanan, who was focussing instead on the opening Test.
September 2007
A global trophy was crafted quickly for the shortest game, but Adam Gilchrist and his team-mates were more concerned with the upcoming tour of India than the matches in South Africa. "It was no secret that our attitude to Twenty20 cricket was undeveloped," Gilchrist wrote in his autobiography. "As a group, we didn't think this tournament was that big a deal."
6-8 June, 2009
It took three days and two defeats for Australia to drop from the 2009 World Twenty20, delivering more red faces and leaving them unranked for this year's event. Once again it was the first lapse on a trip that ended in Ashes defeat. "I'd like to be able to tell you that I knew what was going wrong," Ponting said after losing to Sri Lanka and exiting the tournament.
16 October, 2009
Michael Clarke became the full-time captain and Cameron White, a bits-and-pieces player until now, was a surprise choice as his deputy. After years of trying to mix a couple of specialists with the Test and ODI stars, the Australian selectors show they are serious about putting together a side made for Twenty20.
May 2010
Following a warm-up loss to Zimbabwe, Australia were experiencing déjà vu. Even though the results hadn't yet changed, the demeanour had. Clarke even said Twenty20 had "become exactly the same as one-day and Test cricket". His men quickly displayed the same steel that has driven them in the other formats through most of the 2000s, and from the moment the tournament started they were a familiar foe to the rest of the world.
Peter English is the Australasia editor of Cricinfo