Back in 2007, I wrote a (somewhat emotional) post on another blog I run. It was about my thoughts after the heart-gutting T20 WC final. You can read it in its entirety here.

In that post, I put together a list of things to note from what was then a first-of-a-kind tournament. Here's that list:

• Four things that are hot: field-placing strategy, spinners, net-run-rate, and illegal Internet video streams.


• Four things that need a rethink: free-hits (although no-balls have gone down!), Ian Bishop, bowl-outs, and the ODI World Cup format.


• Four things that are hot no longer: England, fast bowlers at the death, drinks breaks, and Shoaib Akhtar.

I'm beginning my list for this year's tournament. Here are my first entries:

Two things that are hot: slow bouncers, Pak spinners.

One thing that needs a rethink: single-digit over matches.

One thing that is hot no longer: Afridi's batting.

Will add to the list over the course of the tournament.

A few days back we reported about the launch of the Mongoose.

Last night, the Mongoose made its official on-field debut when Stuart Law called for it in the middle of his innings for Derbyshire, who were playing against Durham, in their first game of the Twenty20 Cup this season.

Law began his innings with the long-bladed version of the bat; once he was settled at the crease and batting on 32, he called for the shorter-bladed Mongoose.

Once armed with the Mongoose, Law faced 6 further balls and scored 10 runs, including a towering six over mid-wicket before he was run out with one ball of the innings remaining.

Speaking after his innings Stuart Law enthused, "I obviously felt a bit of pressure going into the game that I wanted to give the Mongoose a good first outing. Fortunately, I was able to get well set and was seeing the ball well. With twelve balls left and looking to press on, it was Mongoose time."

Watching nervously from the grandstands was the Mongoose’s inventor, Marcus Codrington-Fernandez who apparently was more nervous about the bat making its debut, than he was at his own wedding:

"Like every batsman, I am absolutely thrilled to be off the mark. Both in advance of the game and at the moment that Stuart called for the bat, I was absolutely terrified – more nervous than on my wedding day! It’s a huge relief to be underway and in suitably dramatic fashion."

Now that Stuart Law has used the Mongoose in first class cricket and shown the world what can be done with it, can its international debut be far off?

Could we possibly see the Mongoose as soon as the ICC World Twenty20?

We'll just have to wait for that and find out.

If you're interested in using the bat, you can get your own over at Mongoose Cricket.


Press Release, Quotes, Pictures courtesy of Performance PR.

Last week on facebook, I mentioned that Well Pitched had received an invitation to Lord's for the launch of a new innovative bat.

We couldn't make it to Lord's since none of us are based in the UK. The launch event, however, was in the UK and it took place at Lord's this morning.

Thanks to Performance PR, who sent us the invite, we have all the information about this new bat - what its all about, where its going to be used first, and who all is going to be using it.

When we received the invite we were told that the bat was called the "Mongoose".

At the time, I thought that it was the new double sided bat, which was recently approved by the ICC.

However, it was not that.

The Mongoose is an innovation that truly changes the way we know cricket bats.

Here is the fact sheet:

1. The Mongoose bat has been designed specifically for Twenty20
   
   
2. The Mongoose is the most radical change to cricket bat design since 1771



3. The MCC Laws sub-committee has confirmed that the Mongoose bats are legal and allowed to be used in all levels of cricket. They conform to the new version of Law 6 and Appendix E, which came into force on 1st October 2008



4. The Mongoose has been scientifically proven by Imperial College to offer batsmen 20% more power and 15% more bat speed than a conventional bat



5. The Mongoose allows you to hit harder & further without changing the way you play



6. The Mongoose’s blade is 33% shorter and its handle 43% longer than a conventional bat



7. The splice, usually located in the blade of the bat, is incorporated in the handle, which ensures there is no dead spot in the hitting area of the bat



8. The Mongoose also reconfigures the shoulders of the bat by dropping them down nine inches. The weight taken from the shoulders – about 20 per cent of the blade weight – is redistributed to the back of the new, shorter blade



9. The Mongoose is the invention of Marcus Codrington Fernandez, former Global Creative Director for one of the biggest advertising networks in the world



10. The Mongoose will make its first class debut in the Twenty20 Cup (England's domestic competition)



11. The players using the Mongoose bat in first class cricket will include:
    Stuart Law – Derbyshire and Australia
    Ebony Rainford-Brent – Surrey and England
    Laura Marsh – Sussex and England

So then, what do you reckon - will the Mongoose help batsmen hit harder, faster, and further?

What do you make of the shorter blade thats supposed to have a larger sweet spot than a conventional bat?

Will Stuart Law make heaps of runs with the Mongoose?

If its successful, how much longer before it comes into international cricket?

If you want to know more about the Mongoose, see some more pics of Stuart Law posing with the Mongoose, or even buy the Mongoose (£159), hop on over to Mongoose Cricket.

Press Release, Facts courtesy of Performance PR.
Pictures courtesy Mat Hale.
Science stats provided by Professor Anthony Bull, Imperial College, London.

Murali with the ball.

1st slip, leg slip, short leg, and Dhoni behind the stumps.

Is this a Twenty20 game?

You bet it is - Chennai Super Kings trying to defend a lot total agains the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Twenty20 takes a page out of the book of test cricket.

Who said both can't survive together?

[cross-posted from buthyaar.com]

Not sure about the October timing, but the concept is good (even if a bit ambitious). I would expect decent crowds:

nzamam-ul-Haq and up to seven disaffected members of the Lahore Badshahs ICL franchise are in discussions with an American entrepreneur who hopes to establish an international Twenty20 tournament in New York City.

...

Mir, 32, has lined up a three-year staging deal with the minor-league baseball team, Staten Island Yankees. Using a franchise and auction system similar to the IPL, he hopes to draw up six "international" sides - Premium Pakistan, Premium Indians, Premium West Indies, Premium World and Premium America - the final side drawn from the best of the talent on show from approximately 15 million cricket fans who already live in the USA. A spokesman for the Yankees confirmed that they were in talks, adding that they were "very excited" at the prospect of bringing cricket to the city.

"It is a cricket revolution in America," Mr Mir told Cricinfo. "The venue is an absolute fit for the historic nature of this event. It has a capacity of approximately 10,000 spectators and has state-of-the-art facilities, and every spectator can view the beautiful Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River from their seat."

Mir added that he had lined up an agent in England who would help recruit players for the World XI, and that he had been in negotiations with the former West Indies captain, Richie Richardson, whom he hopes will act as both a coach and a recruiter for a potential West Indies team. [LINK]

...to bowl just one legitimate delivery?

In a match of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Twenty20 memorial tournament earlier this week, Port Qasim pacer Zaid Mir had to be taken out of the attack after he failed to bowl a single legal delivery with his bowling figures reading 0-0-31-0 (10 NB).

"Fast bowler Zaid Mir was asked to bowl and he sent down 10 successive no-balls, resulting in 10 free hits to the batsmen, who scored 31 runs off them," a scorer in the match said. [LINK]

Given that 10 free hits were given, this means that each no-ball was of the overstepping variety.

Seriously? 10 consecutive oversteps? With the result that you didn't bowl a single legal delivery? I am tempted to smell a rat, but even someone trying to fix the game wouldn't do something so blatantly obvious. This just reeks of sheer incompetence.

Of course, they had to end the misery somehow:

"Given the strange situation, umpire Saleem Badr allowed Zaid to be taken out of the firing line after he officially said he had suffered a leg strain and couldn't bowl," the scorer added.

Yeah right!

For the record, Zaid's team won by 9 wickets!