Twenty20 could play an enormous part in cricket's future'

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Anand Vasu: I have with me former captain of Australia, Ian Chappell, to look back at what has been a memorable and exciting inaugural ICC World Twenty20.

Ian, in a lot of ways this couldn't have been scripted better, could it? It's been a great advertisement for Twenty20 cricket.

Ian Chappell When you have a world tournament, what you hope for is for the best two teams to reach the final and then you get a great final. Well, this tournament has done even better than that; we had one great semi-final, the two best teams got to the final, and then the final turned out to be a cracker. As you've just said, it's been a great advertisement for the game and it's probably even converted a few cynics and a few doubters.

AV: We've seen a few things in this tournament that aren't very common. The first is a Pakistani side playing consistently good cricket and then an India side fielding brilliantly.

IC: It's amazing what happens when you give youth a chance. Both Pakistan and India have gone with new and young captains and they've led brilliantly. Also, India have included a lot of young players - the selectors got a bit lucky there with the senior players making themselves unavailable for the tournament and they've been forced to pick some youthful players and now they have seen what youth can do. The fielding has been revitalized, and with a courageous captain India have played a very entertaining brand of cricket, as have Pakistan. It's the innocence of youth - they don't know all the things that can go wrong and they play without fear, and it's been terrific to watch.

AV: This tournament was a lot of things World Cup 2007 wasn't. That seemed to drag on and on, it had plenty of one-sided matches, and after a while Australia looked unbeatable. Well here it was open till almost the last over.

IC: Yes, most definitely. It's also saved the reputations of a few International Cricket Council (ICC) officials because the accent will now be shifted from the World Cup - which was a total disaster - to what a great tournament this was. So I think there will be great relief around the board table at the ICC.

Ian Chappell: "There have been lots of players who weren't so well known who've suddenly pushed their name forward - like Misbah-ul-Haq" © AFP

AV: Let's look at some of the stars of this tournament. There was Shahid Afridi who was chosen as the Player of the Tournament, but there were lots of others who could have easily won it - Misbah-ul-haq, Yuvraj Singh are some names that come to mind. So there were lots of players who did perform well.

IC: That's exactly what you will hope happens. And the fact is that have been lots of players who weren't so well known who've suddenly pushed their name forward. If you take the final, you have Gautam Gambhir and then Misbah, who has been pushing his name forward throughout the tournament. The way Misbah played in such pressure situations, well people must be wondering now: where the hell he was all this while?

That's what cricket needs - it needs revitalisation now and again, and that comes with new players coming forward and making their name in the game. It's good to see that the same old names didn't come up for Player of the Tournament. Umar Gul is another one who really enhanced his reputation, as did Mohammad Asif and guys in the Indian team like RP Singh. A lot of young players put their names forward in this tournament and it's good for the future of cricket.

AV: In some ways there has also been a blur of images and matches - there has been so much happening. What are the moments that you will take away from this tournament?

IC: Well obviously Brett Lee's hat-trick and Yuvraj Singh's six sixes in an over stand out, but when I was asked to pick my favourite moment on television I mentioned the moment when MS Dhoni decided to go with Harbhajan Singh in the semi-final rather than one of his seamers. I thought it was a critical decision and a good decision and a very brave one. He then followed it up with some very courageous work as a captain in the final; at a time when Pakistan could have easily taken a stranglehold on the match, he was brave enough to bring an extra man into the circle to save some singles, which put extra pressure on Pakistan. They then lost some wickets, which turned the match on its head and brought it back in India's favour. For me, the leadership of Dhoni has been enlightening and I've enjoyed it.

AV: When this tournament began, neither India nor Pakistan were fancied to go all the way. People spoke about how much Twenty20 England had played on their domestic circuit; people spoke about how power hitting was the forte of teams like Australia and South Africa, yet Pakistan and India have been able to cut some big names down to size.

IC: Yes, and they've played good, sensible cricket. I think what this Twenty20 tournament has shown - and I think you'll see it happening more and more now - is that batsmen who are looking to play fancy and inventive shots are not really the ones who are going to succeed. If you look at Yuvraj's six sixes, they were all very good cricket shots. If you look at the guys at the top of the run-scorers list - Matthew Hayden, Misbah - they all played traditional cricket shots.

I think what this Twenty20 tournament has shown - and I think you'll see it happening more and more now - is that batsmen who are looking to play fancy and inventive shots are not really the ones who are going to succeed. I think that's the message that's come out of this tournament

Misbah is probably sitting in his hotel room ruing that fact that despite playing traditional shots throughout the tournament, he suddenly decided, at the crucial moment, to become very inventive and that brought him undone. So maybe that's a good lesson to a lot of the other players; that's the lesson that has come out of this tournament, particularly once it got to the knockout stage, you saw the opening batsmen playing pretty sensibly. Gambhir's knock in the final was crucial for India, but he wasn't trying to crash balls out of the park; he played sensibly, yet he had a strike rate of 140 and it turned out to be a match-winning innings. So I think that's the message that's come out of this tournament.

AV: One-day cricket had an effect on the way Test cricket was played, after a certain point. Do you see Twenty20 cricket having the same effect, and is Twenty20 here to stay?

IC: I don't think there is any doubt about Twenty20 being here to stay. The administrators now need to use the game wisely and I think it could play an enormously important part in the future of cricket. The game is always going to keep evolving - if it doesn't, it will die, and if you look back at one-day cricket when it went on the international stage in the early seventies, it revitalised a game that was in a bit of trouble. If cricket doesn't keep revitalising itself then it's in trouble. I think this has been a terrific boost for the game but the important thing is that this opportunity shouldn't be wasted. Twenty20 cricket should be fitted into the system wisely and should be used to improve the structure of the longer form of limited-overs and Test match cricket.