{"id":4212,"date":"2025-04-18T21:02:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T20:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4212"},"modified":"2025-04-20T10:02:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T09:02:57","slug":"archive-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2025\/04\/18\/archive-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Licence to Thrill Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (July 2nd<\/sup> 2009)<\/a>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Editor\u2019s Note \u2013 April 18th<\/sup> 2025<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is underway. It is main club t20tournament in the world, although England\u2019s new white ball (limited overs) captain, Yorkshire\u2019s Harry Brook[2]<\/a> has prioritised his country\u2019s needs above the riches he could have earned in the IPL. Brook pulled out of the IPL for the second consecutive year after participating in the auction. In 2024 it was due to the death of his grandmother, but this time it was to \u2018recharge his batteries\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following frustration from teams over late withdrawals, the IPL has initiated two-year bans for withdrawals that are not for medical or family-related reasons. Brook\u2019s withdrawal left his team, the Delhi Capitals in a mess, struggling to replace him. Nevertheless, they sit proudly at top of the standings of the 2025 tournament, having won five of their six matches so far with eight remaining in the group stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are publishing these articles from our archive again as we believe T20 has a very important role to play in the development of cricket then and we unapologetically still do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Editor<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hit and Hope<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty20 cricket had been dismissed as little more than hit and hope \u2013 a mad slog for twenty overs that is not proper cricket, but such opinions are misguided at best. When Chris Gayle destroyed Ricky Ponting\u2019s Australia by taking on and smacking Brett Lee in particular all around the Oval, he was quick to credit his partner, Andr\u00e9 Fletcher for giving him the freedom to express himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCredit must go to the way that Andr\u00e9 Fletcher batted and took the pressure off me,\u201d said Gayle. \u201cOnce he was there and there was a bad ball as well you need to hit them. There was a really good innings from Andr\u00e9 Fletcher, but at the same time there might be a situation where run rate is important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gayle is a power hitter that hits the ball hard and long, but surprisingly, distance doesn\u2019t interest him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t play that sort of game,\u201d he said. \u201cI just stick to my own strengths and I\u2019m satisfied with that. It doesn\u2019t matter how far it goes, as long as I help my side to win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unmovable Rock<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His West Indies colleague Shivnarine Chanderpaul has developed a reputation as being an unmovable rock in Test cricket, but is a gifted limited overs batsman as well. He explained the demands of batting in Twenty20 compared to longer forms of the game exclusively for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, you still have to play a lot of basic cricket out there,\u201d he said, \u201cand if you have balls in the area to hit you have to hit them, but basic cricket still applies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Twenty20 is not just trying to smack the cover off the ball every delivery. It is exciting and faster than any other format. Crowds are more involved and they find it enjoyable, but it is also the most intense and, in some ways, most skilful form of the game. There is no margin of error, but it is innovative and tactical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of spin-bowlers became an unexpected weapon, especially Ajantha Mendis and Shahid Afridi, but perhaps the biggest surprise of all was Aaron Redmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blocker<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was in the right place at the right time. He had never played an international Twenty20 match before and until his shock call-up was playing in the Lancashire Leagues, but Aaron Redmond struck a vitally needed blow \u2013 several actually \u2013 against the knockers. His first innings was in the recent World Cup against Ireland \u2013 by far the best of the Associate Nations, which are members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), but below Test playing countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redmond\u2019s innings of 63 without belligerent flamboyance was still the ideal Twenty20 knock, despite only facing 30 balls. His strike rate was 210. He took the match away from Ireland before they had even batted by giving his team the ideal platform that allowed the power-hitters, Martin Guptil, Scott Styris and Jacob Oram to go after the bowling while more than keeping the scoreboard ticking over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He built an innings and scored consistently throughout it. Although he did not hit a six, his placement was superb, scoring thirteen of his team\u2019s fifteen fours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It caused gales of laughter. Would you consider playing in the IPL [Indian Premier League]? \u201cYes,\u201d said Redmond. \u201cLet them know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why the laughter? This was a fantastic Twenty20 innings and if he can produce this consistently there is no reason why Aaron Redmond can\u2019t take the IPL and Twenty20 by storm. This was an important knock as Redmond established once and for all that not only is there far more to Twenty20 cricket than a mad slog, but that batsmen with technique and placement, but not power, definitely have a place in this format as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> This article was first published in the Magazine in 2009. It was originally not in two parts, but it has been split for the convenience of readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Brook has been appointed England\u2019s new captain for ODIs (one-day internationals) and Twenty20 matches. Brook had been Jos Buttler\u2019s vice-captain. Buttler stepped down after England\u2019s poor showing in the Champions Trophy in February 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (July 2nd 2009)[1] Editor\u2019s Note \u2013 April 18th 2025 The Indian Premier League (IPL) is underway. It is main club t20tournament in [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1057],"tags":[989,988,986,985,984,983,991,990,987,982],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4254,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212\/revisions\/4254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}