da betano casino： Adam Gilchrist, Australia’s stand-in captain, admitted that Twenty20 wasnot a game he had taken to whole-heartedly following the defeat toPakistan
Edward Craig18-Sep-2007
Adam Gilchrist does not think highly of Twenty20 but is still aiming to lift the trophy © Getty Images
Adam Gilchrist, Australia’s stand-in captain, admitted that Twenty20 wasnot a game he had taken to whole-heartedly following the defeat toPakistan. When asked what he thought of the format, he was faint with hispraise: “Er, yeh, yeh. It’s um… well. The more I play it, I am startingto, not so much like it as a player, but love watching it.”Before the tournament started, Gilchrist had said that it was good to playsome international cricket that was not so serious. When Australia lost toZimbabwe, Ricky Ponting demanded respect and the Australian machine hadlooked as well oiled as ever – until facing Pakistan.”I am being more and more sold on why the public is so taken by thisformat. One over can really change a game, and in a tight game it iscrucial. I am still not totally convinced that over the short term, theskills get to come through as much as they do in the longer formats, sothat is evening the games up which is a great spectacle, but we’ll seeover time. We’re all still learning with it.”He admits that Australia’s preparation, at least, was not as serious as itmight have been: “[That we haven’t hit the stumps when fielding] probablyshows we have not put in the time. We could have cut our break short by amonth and come here peaking, but to be honest, at the time when we madethose decisions we didn’t see it as a priority leading into a big run ofcricket.”We are taking it seriously. I am not sure what the perception is but weare. Now that we are here, we definitely want to win, and we are doingeverything we can. We are not shirking this as something we are not caringabout.”