Where it all started?
Test cricket is the longest form of cricket which is played over a period of 5 days. The first officially recognised Test match commenced on 15 March 1877, contested by England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). This was not the first ever international cricket match however. That was played between Canada and the United States, on 24 and 25 September 1844.
Transition phase
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, in which a fixed number of overs, usually 50, (but in the past 40, 45 or 60 overs) are played between two teams with international status. The first ODI was played on 5 January 1971 between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Revolution
In the late 1970s, Kerry Packer established the rival World Series Cricket (WSC) competition, and it introduced many of the features of One Day International cricket that are now commonplace, including coloured uniforms, matches played at night under floodlights with a white ball and dark sight screens.
Where did you come from?
Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional intercounty competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket.
Short and sweet
A Twenty20 game is completed in about two and half hours, with each innings lasting around 75 minutes, thus bringing the game closer to the timespan of other popular team sports. It was introduced to create a lively form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television and as such it has been very successful.
A first of firsts
The first official Twenty20 matches was played on 13 June 2003 between the English counties in the Twenty20 Cup. On 17 February 2005 Australia defeated New Zealand in the first men's full international Twenty20 match, played at Eden Park in Auckland. The game was played in a light-hearted manner both sides turned out in kit similar to that worn in the 1980s.
Record Books
Highest team score: 260/6, by Sri Lanka against Kenya. Best bowling figures: 6 wickets for 18 runs, Ajantha Mendis, for SL against Australia. Highest individual score in an innings: 117, Chris Gayle, for WI against South Africa. Fastest half-century: 12 balls, by Yuvraj Singh for India against England. Fastest century: 50 balls, by Chris Gayle and by Brendon McCullum.
Tryst with Zee
Zee Telefilms, part of the Essel group promoted by Subhash Chandra, had bid for the telecast rights to the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Although the highest bid, it was unsuccessful. In 2004, Subhash Chandra again bid for telecast rights and ended up in an inconclusive court battle. He made another bid for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy rights and once again lost.
Birth of ICL
They denied us the cricket content, said Himanshu Mody, business head of ICL and Zees sports,so, we had to create our own content. Zee Telefilms announced that it would partner with major infrastructure group IL&FS to create a new, ambitious cricket organisation, the Indian Cricket League with a prize money of one million US dollars in the initial edition for the winning team.
Threat to BCCI?
The ICL was set up with a billion dollar Indian Rupee corpus, and was to initially comprise six teams playing Twenty20 cricket, with plans to expand to sixteen teams within three years and to eventually move to 50-over matches. Due to the unofficial nature of the league, most of the national cricket boards warned their players against joining it and as a result most of the international players who signed for the first edition were retired players, such as Brian Lara and Chris Cairns.
Right to refusal
The BCCI refused to recognise the ICL as a cricket league, and criticised Kiran More and Kapil Dev for joining the ICL. Faced with the threat of young players joining the ICL, the BCCI jacked up prize money for winners, runners-up and losing semi-finalists across all domestic tournaments. An average domestic cricketer could make around Rs 35,000 per match day from the season of 2007-08; more than double the Rs 16,000 they got in 2005-06.
Here we go
The BCCI started its own international Twenty20 league. The official league, which launched in April 2008, is called the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket. The league model is revolutionary, based on the franchise model of the National Football League and Major League Baseball in the USA.
