Mind games, performance enhancers and the huddle
Twenty20 cricket is good for the sport, and for the commerce of it
[I]s not part of the spirit of sport the pursuit of ever greater performance? Athletes do all sorts of things to improve their performance, to give them an edge, including things with similar physiological effects to steroids: training at high altitude, or spending long hours in an altitude chamber (as the iconic soccer star David Beckham did to accelerate the healing of a broken bone before the 2002 World Cup) do much the same as using EPO. If the rules were changed to allow, say, non-harmful performance-enhancing drugs--something that Juan Antonio Samaranch, then head of the International Olympic Committee, once caused outrage by advocating--then surely (that sort of) doping would no longer be cheating.
The appendix to the orthodox view is that people must be protected from performance-enhancing drugs because they are damaging to health ... But we know that many performers know the risks and are prepared to take them. It is also true (and rarely mentioned) that often the risk is slight and that sometimes there is an overall benefit to health. (As a 57-year-old athlete, I take anti-inflammatories that are probably on the banned list.) In general, the risk to health from performance-enhancing drugs is considerably less than that from tobacco or alcohol, and we ought not to apply paternalistic moral assumptions to sport that we are not prepared to apply to the rest of life.
I think it [Twenty20 cricket] is a one-dimensional game. Andrew's argument about it not being only for the sloggers is slightly skewed. All those batsmen who do well in Twenty20 (Ian Harvey, Andrew Symonds etc) might have a place in 50-over cricket, but the converse just can't happen. A Michael Bevan (definitely one of the all-time greats in ODIs) may not even make it to a Twenty20 team. Middle-over manipulation, [the] timing of an innings and a shrewd eye for acceleration are three of the most fascinating aspects of the one-day game. All three are absent in Twenty20 [cricket]. Matches where teams come from the dead can never happen, because it is so short.
Twenty20 cricket demands a deceptively thoughtful approach. Batsmen are forced to be pre-emptive (something players from countries with more vibrant 50-over competitions have already learned, judging by the dominance of the overseas brigade). And the most effective hitters leave room for late adjustment.
A trophy on the mantelpiece, or a pot of gold?
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