Twenty20 ruled out of Premier League

By Marc McGowan
THE Twenty20 format will not be part of the Victorian Premier Cricket program next season after club officials gave the idea the thumbs down on Monday night.
Club delegates voted 11-7 in favour of keeping Twenty20 cricket as a stand-alone competition outside the one and two-day modes of the game.
Premier Cricket manager Peter Binns, who is a big advocate of Twenty20 cricket, was not surprised at the decision, but was encouraged by the closeness of the vote.
Binns predicted that including Twenty20 cricket in the program would be too ‘radical’ for club officials and reaffirmed that viewpoint this week.
“Clubs have been notoriously conservative when it comes to change,” he said.
“But just the question of Twenty20 being part of the season’s competition program was probably a bit ‘out there’ from what they’re used to.
“I think last season clubs were pretty happy with 15 rounds and only a couple of Sundays, so I think they generally favoured that concept and were keen to continue with that.”
Club officials also voted 10-8 against reducing the hours of play in first and second XI two-day matches.
The theory behind the proposal was that shorter days would help retain older players and reduce the commitment of volunteers.
Binns felt the major sticking point for club officials was there only being one 30-minute break rather than the usual two 20 and 30-minute intervals.
He said they would revisit the concept before the 2010/11 season and may consider two 20-minute breaks instead.
Binns also revealed that 45-over one-day games were an option in the future.
But Binns was most interested in the integration of the Twenty20 game into Premier Cricket.
“It’s just something we can’t ignore,” he said.
“People want to play more of it and it’s going to become more of a factor in our thinking.
“Being a game that lasts three hours, you don’t have to play them on Saturday afternoons.
“You can fix the program accordingly to play Friday, Sunday or Tuesday nights, so we’ll keep experimenting with that.”