Twenty20 - the new weapon in crime-fighting

Twenty20 cricket has been accused of all sorts of crimes against civilised behaviour in its short but eventful existence, but now - in a bizarre development - a police chief in England has held the format up as the perfect role-model in the fight against anti-social behaviour.

“Twenty20 games are exciting and stimulating and that's what we want for our staff," said Julia Hodson, Nottinghamshire’s chief constable, at the launch of the force’s Policing for You with 20/20 Vision project.

Quite what all this has to do with fours, sixes and Powerplays remains to be explained. According to the Nottingham Evening Post, the project involves 70 Notts policemen being recruited to tackle serious volume crime and anti-social behaviour across the county.

The officers normally deal with such issues as firearms offences, public order, crowd control, suspect and illegal property searches and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology. They will now work alongside colleagues dealing with day-to-day violence, burglary, robbery and Duckworth/Lewis calculations.