Gooch voices his concerns

9:15am Wednesday 18th June 2008

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Essex and England legend Graham Gooch has expressed concern over the ever-growing monster that is Twenty20 cricket.

The sport's shortest format has proved a huge hit with supporters since its inception six summers ago.

With Texan billionaire Allen Stanford bankrolling a £50m winner-takes-all' series of matches between England and an all-star team in Antigua in November, confirmation that an eight-team Champions League - with £2.5million for the winners - will be held in September and counties playing more Twenty20 than ever before, the expansion shows no sign of slowing down.

And while Essex batting coach Gooch is quick to praise the popularity and much-needed income Twenty20 has brought into the game, he is worried that the growing domination of a game favouring big-hitting and all-rounders could pose a threat to traditional five-day Test and four-day County Championship cricket.

"I'm all in favour of Twenty20 cricket. It's been a great life-saver for the county clubs and their domestic finances and is now catching on in international cricket as well," said the 54-year-old, who played 118 Tests and 125 One-Day Internationals.

"It's a very exciting format of the game and that's attracting in people with money because they want to be involved.

"Domestic cricket has essentially been changed forever by the formation of the Twenty20 Champions League because it's the first time a county player has been able to aim for a big prize at the end.

"It's never been there for them before, so the game is changing.

"My concern is that nobody quite knows where this Twenty20 will end up."

Gooch plundered nearly 45,000 first-class and more than 22,000 one-day runs during a sensational 25-year career as one of the world's finest ever opening batsmen.

Recognised as a fine exponent in both forms of the game, the Essex batting coach is loathe to see the specialist skills required to play Test cricket disappear under the Twenty20 steamroller.

"The worry has got to be that sides, in the end, will start gearing up their sides just for Twenty20 and that the other cricket will take a back seat," he added.