Twenty-Twenty Cricket has caused a real mix of opinion within the cricketing fraternity. Some say that it is great for the sport and encourages young people to get involved because it is fast paced and very entertaining. Others think it is destroying cricket and taking prestige away from the test form of the game. I can see both sides of the argument to be honest, but think you have to accept both forms of the game for what they are. Nothing will ever deface the fact that international test match cricket is the highest level of cricket and what ultimately separates the good players from the exceptional players. The Cricket Boards themselves were also upset about the idea because they felt that International players should be available to play for the National side at all times and they were concerned that players may opt to play in the IPL as opposed to representing their country.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has caused a lot of uproar in England with the media constantly hounding England's top cricketers, asking their opinions on it and whether they would ever play in the IPL. There is a lot of money available to players over there and some have been tempted by this. To date I think I'm correct in saying that Dimitri Mascarenhas is the only English International to have played in the IPL, playing for the Rajasthan Royals who actually won the competition, whilst on a break from his county side Hampshire. I'm sure he won't be the only one though; next season when the competition is run again I think a few more will join up, maybe not International players but some top county players looking to make a name for themselves.

This years competition ran from the 18th April - 1st June and involved eight teams and fifty-nine matches. The teams were the Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders and the winners Rajasthan Royals. As it was a totally new setup teams had to pick their players, similar to the draft system implemented in American Football when young players leave high school and join teams in the NFL. The draft was held in February. Sixteen players made up a team, there were no more than eight 'foreign' players in a team and four players had to be local. Each player cost the team different amounts of money depending upon their reputation etc. Teams could spend no more than $5,000,000 on their squad.

The competition was a huge success and because of this they're trying to add four additional teams to the competition, but this probably won't occur until 2010. With the success of the Stanford Series I'm sure the future of twenty-twenty Cricket is bright and the appeal of the IPL will grow. If sky sports get the television rights to next years competition it will be even better, even replays of the matches would be useful due to the time differences between the UK and India.

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment.