Image courtesy of: dailytelegraph.com.au

“If this trend continues, T20 will eventually become a poor impersonation of baseball”

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has announced that he believes Twenty20 cricket is destroying the balance of the sport as batsmen are gaining a significant advantage over bowlers.

Chappell added that something must be done to ensure there is always an even contest between bat and ball.

“While sixes are becoming as common as cheerleaders at T20 matches, over 30 percent of the runs at Bellerive were registered via rope-clearing shots,” Chappell wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph. “This is more than 10 percent above the previous highest yearly average for international T20 matches. The number of games and the on-ground fireworks aren’t the only explosions occurring in T20 cricket.

“T20 sixes are on the increase and while this may sound exciting for the patrons, the administrators need to ensure they retain the right balance between contest and entertainment.”

Chappell also noted there could be severe consequences if the sport’s balance is not restored.

“If they don’t get the balance right the consequences down the track could be dire and the game may eventually become unrecognisable as cricket,” he said.

Chappell even went as far as saying that the shortest format of the game was making cricket look like “a poor impersonation of baseball”.

“Batting is an art but with the boundaries being reduced and bats improving at a rapid rate, there’s plenty of incentive for players to completely ignore technique and concentrate on raw power,” he said. “If this trend continues, T20 will eventually become a poor impersonation of baseball.

“There’s definitely a place for hitters who excel but some batting artistry must remain for the game to resemble cricket.”