Kate White looks back at Wisden’s coverage of the first World Twenty20 tournament.
Wisden declared 2007’s inaugural World Twenty20 “a dream”. The tournament, in South Africa, “just got things right”.
Its success was all the clearer for coming just six months after the “joyless and long-winded” 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean. High ticket prices, empty stands, umpiring controversies and – most poignantly – the death of Pakistan coach and former England batsman Bob Woolmer overshadowed the competition, which Simon Barnes, chief sports writer of The Times, dismissed as “the worst sporting event in history”.
Pakistan and India were both eliminated early at the World Cup – but provided the blockbuster finale in the World Twenty20. India had played only one 20-over international before the tournament – but their last-over triumph sent a billion people T20 crazy, and arguably marked a watershed moment in the growth of the shortest format. The “temptation to lift the lid of Pandora’s box” was growing stronger, Wisden mused.
The competition started with a bang: no less than 13 records were smashed in the opening match between South Africa and West Indies at Johannesburg. Chris Gayle set the tone, cracking the first ball for four and going on to make 117, including ten sixes.
Prices had been kept reasonable, with grass tickets for group games costing as little as R20 (about £1.50). And, according to Wisden 2008, spectators didn’t just get a game of cricket, they got music, professional DJs and the occasional firework. “Most eye-catchingly, though, they got 100 or so dancers (30-plus at each venue, on eight separate stages), who gyrated for about 25 seconds at every four, six and wicket. When Sri Lanka walloped Kenya, it wasn’t just the batsmen who were shattered: 30 fours, 11 sixes and six wickets equated to almost 20 minutes’ dance in 20 overs.”
The group stage featured 12 teams in four groups, with Scotland, Kenya, Zimbabwe and – supposedly – Bangladesh the small fry.
Despite Gayle’s pyrotechnics, West Indies lost their opening match against the hosts, and were knocked out of contention 48 hours later – by Bangladesh.
The real giant-slaying, though, came in Group B, where Zimbabwe beat Australia by five wickets. Australia’s illustrious top three (Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting) had all departed before the fourth over. According to Wisden, “Zimbabwe fielded out of their skins, bowled with total conviction and, in 21-year-old Brendan Taylor, batted with immense maturity to topple mighty, if rusty, Australia.”
Kenya set records of a less welcome kind, being dismissed for the lowest total and enduring the most ducks (six) when they were rolled over for 73 by New Zealand. And their annihilation by Sri Lanka by 172 runs was labelled “possibly the most one-sided game of international cricket yet played”.
Kenya joined West Indies, Zimbabwe (despite Taylor’s heroics) and Scotland in failing to reach the Super Eights.
England made it through the group stage, beating Zimbabwe and losing to Australia, but things went downhill from there. “Excellent” bowling was let down by substandard batting and fielding against South Africa at Durban and, two days later, they “contrived to lose a match they dominated for most of its 40 overs”, falling short of New Zealand’s 164 by five runs.
In a familiar echo of more recent controversy, off-field issues spilled over into the game: “Perhaps distracted by revelations that he had been at a Cape Town lap-dancing bar the day before the South Africa game, Collingwood forgot to bowl Flintoff out and to maximise his seamers.” The batting performance was then marred by “poor shot selection and hare-brained running”.
In England’s third and final Super Eights match, against India, Yuvraj Singh famously hit Stuart Broad for six sixes in the 19th over, reaching fifty from just 12 balls – a T20 record, which stood until 2023.
India went on to meet Australia in the semi-finals. “By common consent, this was the finest Twenty20 international yet played,” Wisden said. Neither side put a foot wrong, India piling up 188 runs and Australia keeping up with the rate until the end of the 18th over, when the balance tipped “in the blink of an eye”. India won by 15 runs, setting up a grandstand final with Pakistan, who had ousted New Zealand in the other semi.
The compelling final was decided when Misbah-ul-Haq’s attempted scoop landed in the hands of Sreesanth at short fine leg. Pakistan, nine down, had needed 13 from the last over. It became six from four balls – just one stroke would do it – but Misbah’s shot proved too ambitious.
After 27 matches in just 14 days, the competition was over. But its impact on the growth of T20 cricket would be long-lasting, and questions were already being asked about what it would mean for the overall health of the game.
In his review of world cricket in Wisden 2008, Sunday Times cricket correspondent Simon Wilde reflected on the tournament’s popularity. “But the World Twenty20 was perhaps too much of a success. It left administrators in a quandary. How much Twenty20 should they sanction, and how did they fit it into an already crowded schedule?” The ICC had limited each country to playing seven matches per year, while acknowledging that the format could be used as a “missionary tool” to grow the game in potentially lucrative regions, such as the United States.
In his Notes that year, Wisden editor Scyld Berry also reflected on the issue, writing that Twenty20 cricket in India was “shifting the tectonic plates of the professional game”. Players now had opportunities to earn more money representing Indian cities in the shortest format than playing for their country…
“The day has lurched closer when England’s best cricketers, in addition to representing England, will play for an English region in a first-class tournament at the start of each season, for an English city in the 20-over competition in mid-summer, and for an Indian city.”
With the proliferation of T20 franchise tournaments around the globe, Berry’s worries seem almost insignificant in today’s creaking schedules.
Kate White is Assistant Editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.