2020 in 2012?

The International Cricket Council has put forward an interesting proposal - to use Twenty20 as a way to get cricket into the Olympics. While it's certainly possible that the chance of cricket getting into the Games could be slim - after all, there are a lot of sports that would like to be in the Olympics and only a finite number that can be included - Twenty20 does seem like a good way of doing it as I think it offers a much more open game, and hence a chance for the smaller countries to compete with the Test nations, than the regular one day format.

England and Australia are already scheduled to play the first international Twenty20 games during the Ashes series next year and it'll be interesting to see how that goes, and whether other nations will want to play it when they come to England, or even stage their own games.

One idea I've had for Twenty20 internationals would be quite fun if anyone was to adopt it - a four team tournament over three days. As the finals day has shown, it's possible to stage three Twenty20 games in one stadium in one day (provided it's floodlit, of course) so one could stage three knock-out tournaments (two 'semi-finals' and a final on each day) with each team getting to play each of the others in the opening fixtures over the three days and the overall winner determined by who does the best over the three days. It could feature the hosts, one or two touring sides and another one or two lower-tier national sides (Ireland, Holland, Wales or Scotland in an England-hosted tournament, for instance). So, if anyone from the ECB happens to be reading, get in touch and we'll talk...