So the ECB’s answer to the Indian Premier League and the Aussie’s Big Bash finally arrived yesterday evening, having been postponed for a year. I’m sure most of us are aware of the premise, but if not it’s a new cricket competition where each side faces 100 balls that are divided into five (or 10) sets (rather than a six ball over), so it’s shorter than T20 cricket but otherwise still follows one day cricket in that the team who scores most wins. Unless it rains.

But was it any good? Well, it was like cricket… Only shorter. I actually liked that each innings (are they still called that) lasted less than 80 minutes. I find that in T20 the amount of overs per hour has dipped down and down in recent years. Another positive is that the men’s tournament and the women’s tournament are running side by side, lots of double header games, higher profile for the women’s game etc. And some of the games are live on the Beeb, can’t be bad. Last night’s game (are they still called that) was between the women’s franchises representing Manchester and the Oval. it was pretty close, came down to the » Continue Reading.