January 11. Day 11. It's just not cricket

I understand why many lovers of "real" cricket completely despise the Twenty20 version of the game. The truth is it's just not cricket in the pure red ball, polite applause gentleman's game. It's nothing like it. It's the all-singing, all-dancing version of the game. But the reason the purists hate it, is exactly what is pulling in the crowds - more than 29,000 at the Gabba tonight. To this point I haven't joined the 20Twenty revolution not because I am too pure but because I
 just haven't got around to buying tickets. Tonight changed all that. It wasn't exactly a great game - the home team was pretty much out of the frame at the end of the third over of the match when they were three wickets down but it didn't matter. This form of the game is about the atmosphere and the spectacle as it is about the cricket - and that's what has the stands packed with families. This is not a game you sit and watch. This is a game where you Mexican wave, dance and sing. There's Kiss Cam, a rocket man, fireworks, dancers, an acrobatic mascot and loud pumping music between every over. It would be wrong to refer to the crowd as "spectators". The crowd are participants in a piece of theatre that just happens to be playing out in the stands while cricket is being played in the middle. In summary it is great family entertainment and my family certainly loved every minute (well almost every minute. The minute where the child in the row in front of us threw up repeatedly, that minute we didn't love very much at all. It was a performance which really could have be a re-enactment of that scene from the Exorcist but I digress). I know the pies weren't great but I suspect there was more to the vomiting than that. I did take away one lesson from tonight's experience. Next time I will try to buy tickets in an unlicensed section. While this time the vomiting had nothing to do with alcohol, the way many around us were drinking I wouldn't be so sure about next time. A dry area might be a better choice if only because it limits the number of times you have to make way for the people around you to squeeze past for a drink.

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