Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 20
For any sport to succeed on the national, or any level for that matter, the sport needs to acquire a hegemonic status - level of emotional attachment - and a status of national-past-time. Twenty20 is an obvious solution with regards to cricket's diffusion, I agree.

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 21
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Srilanka are poor nations all right, but they generate 75% of the cricketing revenue.

This is how it works: all the revenue goes to the ICC, which is then disbursed to the cricket playing nations. Cricket will die in New Zealand, for instance, if Sub Continent did not generate enough revenue. Same goes for Australia, South Arica, West Indies, UK and the remainig nations.

There is a lot of meny in cricket, especially in the sub continent. Did you hear this story, when India threatened to quit Australia's tour amid the issues with Ausies; Indians were ready to pay off Ausies with the penalties' money without putting a dent in BCCI's cash balances!

Not to mention the investment in IPL and ICL in India - Which other country did you think was capable of investing that much? The other biggest investment in the history of cricket has been from Kerrie Pecker in the 70s, which was just a fraction when compared with the amount which went in IPL and ICL. UK and Holand will eventually put money in cricket with respect to the degree and level of the past time that cricket will take on their national levels.

Finally, nations don't make investments in sports as such, but the private investors. Soccer, for instance is hugely financed through the investments that investers make by ways of taking its franchises.

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 17
Agreed. Cricket will never be as popular as football! There can only be one sport as popular as football and that is football. However, cricket is almost a second most popular game - taking into account its popularity in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh - nearly two billion people are into it as their national pass time.

Yes, twenty-20 cricket has a potential to grow in USA - mind you the game was literally kicked out of the USA as Americans tend have shown more hegemony - emotional attachment - with the sports that they invented, such as basketball and baseball.

With regards to Dilmiyah, I think it is ICC which is dragging cricket against its popularity by discouraging the new coming investors in the game!

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 15
It will be impossible for ICC to organise any sort of event with 10 more countries playing cricket to the level of current 10 core nations, except organizing some thing in twnety-20 format. It took almost two months to conclude world cup 2007 with 16 countries participating in it....

We all know that it took New Zealand almost forever to register their first ever win in test cricket! Countries like Bangladesh, Kenya, and Zimbabwe will eventually make their mark. Other emerging nations, such as Ireland, Scotland, UAE, Holland, Canada, USA should be slightly better in ICC with regards to their recognition.

It is worth noting that some nations might do very well in twenty-20 and possibly cause upsets as has been a case in the IRB Sevens!!!

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 8
Cricket is surely not simple game! It is considered to be one of the most complex sports around!

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 6
I can agree to some extent that cricket is in some sort of trouble - it is declining in West Indies, where basket ball is taking over; declining in New Zealand fractionally; Ausies say that in 10 years' time cricket won't be a national past time there; cricket hasn't done very well in Pakistan due to security issues in the country; cricket has not been doing well in England as the national side has been underperforming for a while! However, Indians have done well and perhaps given the game a life line to some extent, especially through the fixtures such as ICL and IPL.

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 7
1. If you are talking cricket in general, then cricket has been around since 18th century and well and truly evolved but did not spread as much as other sports of the same era have! If you are talking about twenty-20, then there is not doubt it will evolve. The question is: will it help spread cricket cross-cultures?

2. We must retain all forms of cricket including ODI. However, we should continue developing twenty-20 like ICL and IPL, as well as introduce cricket to the non-cricket-playing-nations via the twenty-20 format.

3. I must acknowledge that any country that has done a real service to cricket in these days is India - as mentioned earlier, 75% of the world's cricketing revenue comes from the sub-continent and the most of the 75% come from India.

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 7
1. If you are talking cricket in general, then cricket has been around since 18th century and well and truly evolved but did not spread as much as other sports of the same era have! If you are talking about twenty-20, then there is not doubt it will evolve. The question is: will it help spread cricket cross-cultures?

2. We must retain all forms of cricket including ODI. However, we should continue developing twenty-20 like ICL and IPL, as well as introduce cricket to the non-cricket-playing-nations via the twenty-20 format.

3. I must acknowledge that any country that has done a real service to cricket in these days is India - as mentioned earlier, 75% of the world's cricketing revenue comes from the sub-continent and the most of the 75% come from India.

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 4
The reference is as follows:

Kaufman, Jason & Orlando Patterson. 2005. “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket.” American Sociological Review. Vol. 70(1) P. 82-110

Both Jason and Patterson come from Harvard University. They took up this research project years ago with the help of various research assistants.

I hope this will help. Thanks for your input.

Twenty 20 Cricket Re: # 1: You are spot on mate! The 75% of world's cricketing revenue comes from Sub-Continent. Also, you are right that the format existed since Adam and Eve's times and I am not suggesting otherwise either.

The article suggestes that it is a very good tool to take the game beyond the borders of core cricket constituencies - 10 core cricket playing nations. Cricket, for starnge reasons, never crossed its borders on the international level beyond 10 cricket playing nations. However, twenty20 is a format that might suit and attract many other nations, while cricket's other formats - test and ODI - never did and never will!

I have used the example of IRB - International Rugby Board - which has, on the similar lines, introduced a Rygby format known as Rugby Sevens. You see traditionally, there are six top Rugby playing nations, which dominate Rugby Union - Rugby's format like test cricket. In Australia and couple of other countries, Rugby League - Rugby's format like ODI cricket - is very popular. Rugby sevens is marketed in non-rugby-playing-nations very successfully. For instance, one of its yearly tournament is held in Dubai every year, where there were over 100,000 spectators in the stadium during the two days of the event of 2007.

In summary, cricket needs to grow out of its borders and twenty20 might be the sloution!

Cheers.

Pakistan\'s Universities - Problems and Solutions They say about computers - garbage in garbage out; and same goes for the systems, such as educational system in Pakistan. What Pervez highlighted in his articles was stating the obvious. Actually, Pervez did not say any thing about the root cause: a student, almost by default, would refer to the text book if that's what the student did through out his/her academic years. There are no text books taught from class zero in developed countries' qualification frameworks! Also, what is obvious from the Pervez articles the fact that no one can bring reforms without 'people' - right people. What HEC or anyone for that matter can do to improve things in the education sector of Pakistan other than utlising what any body can access in Pakistan with regards to human resources. Bringning alien teachers will not solve the problem unless the aliens are brough just about on every level - elementary to the higher level.

I do not want to take the credit of good work away from the HEC personnel. They have doen many good things but the results are only representative of the community they are dealing with.

Did any one ever notice what happened to the matric pass students many years ago who could not get admission in any tertiary college due to poor marks? Well they all went to to do PTC course followed by a CT course and starting teaching to whom there was any glimmer of hope - our children!!!

Anyways, I personally think where Pervez has been really good in outlining the ussue, especially with regards to the research publications, he was equally harsh rather diverting the issue politically and getting no where eventually. I am sure that the days will come when our Ph. D. scholars will learn to research and publish original work Insha Allah.