Former India coach Ravi Shastri reckons that the T20 format is not meant for bilateral series between international teams and the slam-bang style of cricket should be restricted to just World Cup. Shastri, one of the most successful India coaches, also feels that franchise cricket together with a biennial T20 World Cup is the best way forward when it comes to the shortest format, considering fans’ appetite for it.
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Shastri’s comments have come, days before India’s five-match T20 series against South Africa.
.”There’s too much of bilateral stuff going on in T20 cricket. I’ve said that (before), even when I was the coach of India, I could see it happening in front of my eyes,” Shastri told ESPNcricinfo.
“It should go the football way, where, in T20 cricket, you just play the World Cup. Bilateral tournaments – no one remembers.” Shastri, whose tenure as India coach ended last year, said he doesn’t “remember a single (T20) game in the last six-seven years as coach of India, barring the World Cup.”
Discussing the future of IPL, former India opener Akash Chopra said: “I actually foresee there might be two editions of the IPL in every calendar year. And that’s not too far away.”
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“It could be tomorrow – 140 games, split 70-70. In two seasons. You never know. That’s the way it’s going to go. That’s the way it’s developed as a beast of property. And you cannot hide away from that.
“You might think that’s overdose, but nothing is overdose in India. I have been sitting outside the bubble, I have been watching people, how they have seen, how they have reviewed these last few months, especially out of Covid. And they are loving every bit of it, and they are almost having withdrawal symptoms.”
