Delhi Daredevils coach and former Australian great Dennis Lillee — in an exclusive chat with Nihal Koshie — spoke on the idea of the T20 cricket
Delhi Daredevils coach and former Australian great Dennis Lillee — in an exclusive chat with Nihal Koshie — spoke on the idea of the T20 cricket and on how the bowlers should adjust in the shortest version of the game...
What strategy should a fast bowler use in T20?
I think the shorter the version of the game bowler doesn’t have the opportunity of planning an attack on each individual batsman. The main aim is to either get wickets in the four overs you have or contain the batsmen.
If you manage to contain a batsman then it could lead to mistakes and a wicket. A wicket in this T20 format of the game puts pressure not just on the next batsman but on the whole batting-order.
Words of advice for a bowler…
Here it is not about concentrating on each over rather it is about concentrating on each ball. A dot ball is like a wicket. I would immediately advice bowlers to bowl dot balls. It is often about where you put the ball rather than how fast you actually are.
In T20 you can afford to slow down a little bit and put the ball where it is. Outright speed can create pace for the batsman to flick or hit the ball where they want it.
But it can be demoralising for a bowler, isn’t it?
I would have enjoyed the challenge initially. I liked the challenge of one-day cricket too. But then in one-dayers you can bowl a good spell and then go for forty runs in the next three overs.
In T20 it is going to be the same. I must say Warnie (Shane Warne) and Glenn McGrath have bowled beautifully so far. In one-day cricket a batsman at least thinks of defending a good ball or just taking a single off it but in T20 every batsman is trying to hit the ball out of the park in every ball. Bowlers have to accept that they are going to get hit in T20. They have the option of bowling intelligently.
You were part of the Kerry Packer Series too….
The Kerry Packer Series I would say was a revolution, while what we are seeing now with regard to the T20 leagues is an evolution. But what Kerry Packer showed it that people want to watch great players and big names play.
Though the Packer series wasn’t designed to be a breakaway group in the end the authorities said that we can’t accommodate you and all the players were banned. However, the stadiums were full for the Kerry Packer Series and soon the authorities realised that conventional cricket wasn’t getting as much as a crowd.
How do you see T20 changing cricket?
The T20 leagues are also a great concept and can take cricket to smaller
countries and will help cricket become a global sport. It is drawing big crowds here and has been drawing big crowds all over.
The fact that it last about 3 hours only makes it more appealing. Three years ago, we (Lillee is the president of the WACA) we grabbed the opportunity to host the first T20 game in Australia. At that time Cricket Australia wasn’t interested. In that first game, the Western Australia versus Victoria match, we had capacity for 19,000 but 26,000 people wanted to get in. And immediately we knew that this was the way ahead. Next season onwards Cricket Australia got some programmes going and it worked.
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