Whatever happens, T20 will definitely affect the other forms of the game. Over the last 20 years, the surfeit of one-day games has ensured that batsmen score quicker in test matches and there are less draws. All sorts of unorthodox shots invented in the one-day game, like the reverse sweep, have now become common in test matches. T20 too has forced batsmen to turn their backs on the cricket manual and extemporise strokes that no one thought of before, other than in their childhood neighbourhood games. These will now find their way inevitably into longer forms of the game. Over time, the pace of cricket in one-dayers and test matches will definitely become faster. T20 will change the game, and it will be, I think, for the better.

Sandipan Deb is the editor of RPG Enterprises’ weekly

features and current affairs magazine, Open

sandipan@openmedianetwork.in