Twenty20 a passing fad

After seeing fairly small crowds at many domestic Twenty20 games in England this season, Martin Samuel writes in the Daily Mail that the format is a passing fad. He says that while it may attract non-cricket fans people looking for entertainment, they won't be interested in it in the long run.

The biggest crowd of the season is the 15,000 that attended the derby between Middlesex and Surrey, although the same fixture attracted 26,500 in 2004. That match was the first Twenty20 fixture to be staged at Lord's, suggesting this was a novelty that will pass, like Pixie Geldof or the Liberal Democrats. In the end all that will be left is the same group of people that the ECB deemed irrelevant: boring old cricket fans.

And, unlike the mob that get excited by loud music and a six hit over cow corner, the traditionalists are a rather knowledgeable lot. They know when they are being hoodwinked, for instance, by boundaries set short at 55 yards to make the batting appear more spectacular and they know that a slog-fest with all technique and subtlety removed can be every bit as dull as a tea-time session on day four of a slow Test.