Twenty 20

"You are watching India's fist ever 20-20 international, Live and Exclusive on ESPN", Harsha and Allan were screaming almost every over ,the other day. Agreed, Cricket is religion in India ,but why those guys were so excited for a game, which was being played by many people in many gullies in India for many years. What I exactly mean is

We (boletho, my co-players in my village) were playing 20-20 cricket for many years. Infact 20-20 is the longest version of cricket game in my village. Others were 12-12 & 6-6 and this 20-20 was almost similar to the game we played ,like

1)Players(Batting side) sit just next to the boundary line ( like we do)
2)Two batsmen are always ready with their pads ,gloves and gurads on (similar to my village, except that these two batsmen will run fast once the wicket falls and the one who reaches the crease faster, will get the chance to bat)
3)Batting side (sometimes commentators) will get the chance to sledge fielding side (unlike in other forms of cricket)

This version of 20-20 is lacking many features from the 20-20 we play, like

1)Bat only at one side of wicket [the intention of 20-20 is to save the time]
2)No L.B.W. rule and hence no need of umpires, instead you can put two batsmen in the place of umpires ,which will save the time of batsmen walking to pavilion.
3)No No-balls, No Legbye's and all other stupid rules in the game of Cricket.
4)Batsmen sledging batsmen, to get the chance to bat (Remember 20-20 is more of entertainment ,than the game)
5)If team batting first gets out in X number of overs, otherside will get the chance to bat only X number of overs .

On a different note, this match took me to the best 20-20 game ,I ever played in my life.. That match was on Dusera 1997, between juniors and seniors in my village. Seniors scored 120 off 20 overs . I didn't remember how many wickets I took ,except that I was badly injured while taking simple return catch. We started chasing 120 and lost two wickets without scoring any runs. my self(31 not out, with a beautiful straight drive) and the other player (scored 70) built up an partnership and evetually won by 5 wickets. In the next season, because of my morethan 12-hour per day study, my health detorirated and I began to fear the cricket ball and my scores were mostly 0&1 (Incidentally, it is the same period, I joined in Computer Science Engineering). Then I changed to fast bowling ,but didn't last long because of poor fitness, next avataram was spin bowling ,then as Umpire & coach and finally settled as Cricket spectator [In other words, I was the captain -> I was the first one to be chosen -> I was among first 4-5 players ->I was chosen after they look around and if nobody found -> I was asked to umpire -> I was advised to take rest]