New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Twenty20s, Florida ,An adventure breaking new ground

Match Facts

The Big Picture

It is tempting to look at these matches - two Twenty20 internationals between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, being played in the USA - as precisely the reason why tournaments like IPL prosper. Twenty20 is the best vehicle for the globalisation of the game, which somehow - rightly or wrongly - seems to be a big concern for the administrators. The ICC sees the USA, with a team full of Asians and a country boasting enough immigrants to constitute a crowd for a match, as a prospective market. Since the two teams had been to the Caribbean, why not have them stop over on their way back.

Yet, on another level, there is much to suggest that this series is yet another example of the ICC sanctioning an ill-timed series, one without context. It hasn't been even a week since the end of the World Twenty20, and the fatigue, even for the slam-bang format, was evident among the audience during the bilateral series earlier this week between West Indies and South Africa. It would have been foolish to expect anything but in the first place: there is only so much Twenty20 people can take.

In any event, it is going to be a huge weekend for cricket in the USA, especially as a venue. Already the series has been cut short because of poor floodlighting. It is the first time two Test teams are playing in America, and how the matches go from an organisational point of view will have a bearing on the future of international cricket in the USA.

There has also been concern over whether New Zealand and Sri Lanka, small countries with small diaspora, will be able to attract enough supporters, leave alone taking the game to the natives, which should be the real aim. The onus will be on the teams to play attractive cricket; it is not easy to make a pitching-obsessed nation fall in love with bowling. They can't turn up jaded, like West Indies and South Africa did, three days after the World Twenty20 final.