So what's this Twenty20 lark all about?
With the competition now in its fifth season, my first taste of live Twenty20 Cup action was long overdue.
The match between Northants and Somerset enabled me to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, as I was able to finally meet up with Justin Langer, the former Australia Test opener who has also been a regular contributor to this website for the past seven years.
The signs weren't promising, however, with thick grey clouds overhead as I arrived at the ground to hear Weather with You by Crowded House and Bryan Ferry's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall being played by the wag (no, not one of the wives and girlfriends of the Northants players - at least I assume it wasn't) in charge of the PA system.
To be honest, Twenty20 cricket isn't a game to which I am temperamentally suited as I can lay a pretty strong claim to being the most boring batsman ever to grace the league in which I used to play, having once batted the entire 48 overs of a match and only reached 50 in the last over.
My team also used to play 20 overs a side matches in midweek, but I only ever took part in one of them. It didn't prove to be my finest hour as I ran myself out off the first ball!
When I mentioned all this to Langer, he could only smile in disbelief - or perhaps it was just pity for my dismal lack of talent.
Northants were expecting a sell-out crowd as their side still had a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals and thankfully the weather didn't intervene - I even saw a couple of people with ice creams - but unfortunately, their team didn't do the occasion justice with a curiously muted performance.
Lance Klusener smacked the second ball of the innings for four and I thought I might be in for a repeat of the big-hitting exploits I remembered from the 1999 World Cup.
Sadly, he only managed 20 before being bowled by Peter Trego, one of three Somerset seam bowlers who clearly don't look to the England team for inspiration as they didn't send down a single wide between them.
What Klusener may have thought of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life blasting out around the ground as he walked back to the dressing room, I'll leave you to imagine for yourselves.
So where were the thrills and spills which I'd been led to believe were the norm in Twenty20 cricket?
In truth, there weren't many during the Northants innings apart from a couple of sixes each from David Sales and Johannes van der Wath and a brilliant throw from John Francis which ran out Riki Wessels.
A target of 138 didn't look daunting for Somerset, but my pre-match wish of 'Hope you make some runs' proved more a curse than a blessing for Langer as he gave a return catch to Steven Crook after managing only four - cue Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis.
Once Matthew Wood and Cameron White had established a productive second wicket partnership, however, it quickly became obvious which team was going to win the game - and certain members of the crowd took it upon themselves to try and provide some additional entertainment.
Despite the size of the crowd, stewards were few and far between, allowing one bloke the chance to make not one, but two grand entrances onto the field of play.
His first foray saw him retrieve a beach ball which he held aloft as if he'd just discovered the lost treasure of the Incas (perhaps not a very likely eventuality in Northampton, but it was the first thing of value which came into my head) and he later tip-tapped all the way out to the pitch with a white cane and all the way back again without being pursued by any figure of authority.
Crowd control is something of a hot topic at the moment as a result of bad behaviour at a number of games, and afterwards Langer was certainly unhappy with some of the verbal abuse directed at his players.
But the number of children who spilled onto the outfield with bats and balls after White had ended the contest with two sixes in three balls, both of which cleared the perimeter wall beyond the short mid-wicket boundary, was certainly good to see - and it is that younger generation the Twenty20 Cup was set up to attract.
All we need now is for the 'big kids' to stay at home.
It's never too late, Paul, to re-invent yourself as a dashing opening batsman. If Justin Langer can do it, you can. I'm sure you picked his brains on this, and your belated Twenty20 debut for Barnsley 2nd XI is just around the corner.
Complain about this postI'm constantly surprised by references to the novelty of 20-20 cricket and its status as the big new idea which will save the game. In fact anyone who has played cricket at almost any level will be entirely familiar with the concept. Evening 20 over thrashes have been played all over the country throughout the summer at almost every level of the game. Lots of schoolkids will know no other kind of format for the game- hence its immediate appeal to cricket lovers everywhere. The fact that most ancient cricket commentators have forgotten this fact leads me to reflect on their complete lack of empathy with cricket at grass roots level.
Complain about this postSam?? that's not the Sam Ball from Manchester is it?
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