Image via www.bbc.co.uk

There are plenty of sports out there with binary outcomes, where one of two things has to happen. They’re generally the best choices for those who enjoy a punt on their chosen sport and have a deep knowledge of it. So, here’s why…

It’s all about value. Simply put, the value principle works for the house in a casino due to the margin. This is the green zero in roulette or the banker’s “pay” at blackjack etc. That is so, over a long enough period of time, the house will win out. Similarly, if you were ever given odds of an absolute smidgen better than even money on the fair toss of a coin, you would be a fool not to take the bet every time you were offered it. Even if you lost the first six tosses, you would always come out on top if you played it long enough.
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ICC World Twenty20 2010 by Bevo_No_Spicy_Pls

A Twenty20 game involves two teams; each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket.

A Twenty20 game is completed in about three and half hours, with each innings lasting around 75 minutes, thus bringing the game closer to the time span of other popular team sports. It was introduced to create a lively form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television and as such it has been very successful.  Although the format has been proved successful, it has been argued that since Twenty20 encourages far-from-technical cricket, youngsters wanting to pick up the game will be misguided into believing that cricket is all about trying to hit 6s (kinda like a home run in baseball) and 4s no matter how you do it.

With less than a month left till the third ICC World twenty20 bowls off, the list of the 15 member’s squad has been announced by all 12 playing nations. The third edition of ICC World twenty20 will be played in the West Indies, April 30^th to May 16th 2010 with matches to be played at four grounds – Barbados, Guyana, St.Lucia and St.Kitts & Nevis. The tournament will be organized in parallel with the women’s tournament, with the men’s semi-finals and final being preceded by the semi-finals and final from the women’s event. A total of twelve teams will participate in the tournament (Pakistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, India, South Africa, Afghanistan, West Indies, England and Ireland).

There will be four groups consisting of three teams in each group. Each team will play with each other in their corresponding group and the top two teams from each group will qualify for the super 8’s stage. The twenty20 Final at Kensington Oval, a game which I finally secured tickets for after a 2 month search (long story), will be on May 16^th.

Being from Trinidad and Tobago means by default I’m cheering for the West Indies team, even though they are currently ranked #8 of 12 in the world in the one day 50 over version of the game, they do have some of the world’s most explosive players in the twenty20 version of the game – one being Chris Gayle (only player to score an international twenty20 100 score). Chris Gayle is responsible for hitting the some of the biggest sixes in cricket and although it’s not an official stat, he has lost the most balls in domestic and international form of the game, he hits the ball so far over the wall that they couldn’t be found, but when your stadium is located in a jungle that a pretty easy thing to do I guess.

The West Indies team can be described as the NY METS of international cricket, they are surely going to break your heart repeatedly but a fan is a fan and we always hold out hope however faint and unwise it may be.  The W. Indies lost their last twenty20 international to lowly Zimbabwe in a game described by some experts as “the worst international cricket ever played.” They start off in a relatively easy group along with England and the Irish but knowing what I know about the W. Indies, easy usually means finding a way to lose.

Stay tuned for more…..