SPORTWATCH: IT'S NOT JUST CRICKET...

..It's so much more!  At least, that's what the T20 Cricket World Cup tried to deliver.  Are you one of those people who want to get into high-level cricket but are scared off by the culture, complexity and commitment required of the traditional week-long test matches?  Well, the T20 version's for you! It's shorter, faster, more tv and live-friendly, and otherwise removes all barriers to entry for the average sports fan    

they'll let anybody in now

And with its own World Cup tournament, T20's looking to capture the patriotic passion and pageantry seen in spectacles like the Mondiale or the Davis Cup

or judging by all the flames and bright get-ups, Eurovision

They also did all they could to keep the in-stadium experience as rowdy and raucous as possible, including having a hyperactive PA, a "Make Some Noise/FanCam" jumbotron, chants and heckling, free-flowing drinks, as well as the bane of every introvert/too-cool sports fan -- the Wave    

which, like the toilets, swirls in the other direction here in Australia

The match I caught pitted host Australia against bitter rival New Zealand, and even newbies like me figured that Australia was the cricketing powerhouse with the more famous players and was the heavy favorite going in.  Well, guess again Batsman!  The T20 format lends itself to the underdog getting quick licks in and then sprinting away to the finish before the favored team even knows what hit them.  So it seemed to me that for this match, the Kiwis gameplan was simple enough: hit every other ball out of the park...

      

...hold the Aussies to low-scoring grounders...

...and when bored of that, just catch every ball lethargically hit short of the boundary  

 

I'm an expert cricket strategist now!  But I couldn't have done it without the insightful, profanity-laced play-by-play of my row of seatmates, as well as a well-meaning scoreboard that tried its best to help me keep up with what was going on but always read like a nightmare middle-school times table written exam

if  a train leaves Sydney at 12pm travelling 100kph, how soon can the Aussie team lose and be on it?   

But as with anything learned at school, the important thing to ask yourself: will I have any use for this in my fantasy leagues?

pshh, you don't draft Josh Hazelwood ahead of Devon "You Can Go Your" Conway, duh