Sports

Penguin releases ‘Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution’

Sentinel Digital Desk

New Delhi: Why is Royal Challengers Bangalore one of the worst-performing teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL), despite having batsman like A.B. de Villiers and being captained by Virat Kohli? On the other hand, why is Chennai Super Kings (CSK) one of the best-performing teams, despite boasting fewer superstars and an ageing M.S. Dhoni as skipper? The secret could lie in the teams’ captaincy styles. But more importantly, it lies in the way T20 teams plan, strategise and build themselves around a core group, which CSK has done. In this Kindle edition of “Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution”, Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde take the reader on a whirlwind tour of the cricket format that has taken the world by storm. From its inception when T20 was accepted by a narrow vote of the Marylebone Cricket Club, to its current global popularity, from its original superstar Chris Gayle to newcomers like Rashid Khan and Sandeep Lamichhane, T20 has become a phenomenon that has resurrected the game of cricket. From the sunny beaches of Trinidad and Tobago, which gave the world a West Indian team feared by its contemporaries, to the raucous stadiums of the IPL — today one of the world’s most valuable sport tournaments, from India’s original rejection of T20 to ultimately embracing it, signalling a shift in world cricket, Wigmore and Wilde break down how T20 has changed the game entirely, and why it may be the future of cricket. Wigmore is a journalist for the Daily Telegraph, ESPNcricinfo, New York Times and The Economist, specialising in cricket, sports analytics and the business of sport. He is also a weekly columnist for “i” newspaper (published in London by Daily Mail and General Trust). He is also a former winner of the CMJ Young Cricket Journalist of the Year, and runner-up for the Ian Woodbridge Young Sports Writer of the Year award. His first book, “Second XI: Cricket in its Outposts”, was named one of Guardian’s sports books of the year for 2015. Wilde works as an analyst and is on the editorial team at the cricket data analytics company CricViz, which provides services to broadcasters, professional teams and players. IANS