I have always had an enormous amount of respect for former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan. He was a born fighter, a fantastic and courageous leader of men, and had an on field attitude which was unparalleled. He fought tooth and nail for every inch and even though he some might say that he wasn’t supremely talented, he is arguably one of the finest cricketers of all time. Why am I suddenly talking about Imran? Well, this week, I thought Imran pulled out a perfect in-swinger from his repertoire of deliveries, albeit off the field. He said that T20 cricket is more of Tullebaazi (read chance cricket) where one doesn’t need too much planning and it’s more about luck and taking chances. To be fair, he also said that he was happy that people were flocking to see so many people turning out to watch Tullebaazi.

What’s even more interesting is the fact the current Pakistan skipper Younis Khan came in for a lot of flak when he came out and said that he would be disappointed if his team gets knocked out of the T20 world cup but won’t take it too seriously as he equated T20 with “fun cricket”. Even Sachin Tendulkar in a recent interview had said that he likes T20 but it shouldn’t be played at the cost of test cricket being affected. Chris Gayle has already said something on the lines that Test cricket is boring and he prefers the more “fun” format.

Since I wasn’t around at the time One Day Internationals were introduced back in the early 70’s, I am sure that similar doubts must have been raised. Resistance to change is always very strong when it comes to cricket - both for the players as well as fans. But T20, at least to my dislike is rapidly incorporating too many changes. I read somewhere that the ICC is mulling over the concept of an ‘Eighter’. Already the concept of maidens seem to be history in the scorecard, with dot balls column replacing the good old maiden. Sixers are called maxium (prefix a brand name of your choice) before it. And strategy breaks were seen at IPL 2.0 to please the advertisers.

Although the biggest joke, and yes it was a joke only, had to be last week’s New Zealand-Scotland World Cup match which was reduced to 7-overs-a-side. Yes, 7 overs! I mean, for heaven’s sake, we all have played much longer matches in our gullys while growing up. How does a captain motivate his team for such a match? How does a batsman plan his innings? How does a bowler execute his plans for different batsman? Of course, that match could very well be a one-off and I might be reading too much into it. But seriously, the men running the show, need to understand that a fan is not devoid of cricket to such an extent, that he will watch a ridiculously shortened game! He might watch it, but deep down he will find it absolutely cringeworthy.

I, for one, definitely don’t believe that T20 would put the nail in test cricket’s coffin. As a sports fan, I am not too worried about that. What worries me most is, in fact, other factors such as lack of quality players, the current state of cricket in traditional powerhouses like Pakistan and West Indies, and most importantly, extremely flat and placid pitches all over the world.

Please give us back a bouncy Perth pitch, where batsmen actually fret before taking guard. Or the Sabina Park of old, where you knew that you were in for some serious business. If the authorities don’t wake up and do something about these things then that day won’t be far, when Tullebaazi will replace Ballebaazi!