1/ The IPL is on.
2/ So is the Melbourne T10 Invitational, where I stopped in for the opening fixture on Sunday.
Here are the scenes of delirium after the academy of the Sydney Thunder, 5 for 91, beat the academy of the Melbourne Stars, all out 77 - under-12s scores for cricket arguably pitched at that market. Stand aside Sheffield Shield; the Blackie-Ironmonger Stand was rocking.
I know, I know: it’s hardly fair to judge the format on this limited, low-skill outing. But there will surely come a limit to cricket’s further compression - when it does so little justice to the players’ actual capabilities, and yawns so emptily afterwards, that it’s as worth playing as two-hole golf or five-minute footy.
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