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GREG CHAPPELL

Former Test captain and the previous Indian coach Greg Chappell has been watching the lantana-like spread of Twenty20 with some concern.

He says that while he is happy with the new game being played as a fundraiser at the domestic level, he is concerned that it might affect the focus of our most important breeding grounds for Test players -- the states.

Chappell points out that the one-day game has so distracted most of the other cricketing nations that they have fallen away in the five-day game.

He worries that the simplistic Twenty20 form could do further damage.

For a start, he finds the form is naive and needs development. "It's got limitations as a form, it is very one-dimensional," Chappell says. "It's certainly not the panacea for our ills as some consider it."

Chappell says the Twenty20 game lacks depth, that there is no penalty for losing wickets as it's hard to be bowled out and there is little fielding involved as the ball generally sails off into the crowd.

"At this stage it is just about who can hit the ball the furthest and that is not enough to sustain interest," he says.

Chappell says that Australia has stayed strong at Test cricket because it has understood the value of the four-day game at state level, but if the states are distracted by money on offer for Twenty20, the Test team will suffer.

"I think the idea of generating more money for domestic cricket is fantastic," he says.

"However the disparity between the potential to win $2m playing Twenty20 and what you get to win the Pura Cup is going to affect the way people think about the game. "It will affect programming and so on and it needs to be cleverly thought through.

"The four-day game is a very important part of the development process in cricket and that needs to be understood and it needs to be protected as much as possible"

Source : The Australian