Twenty20 fails to ignite interest

Punters who have taken ante-post prices about South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and India for the inaugural World Twenty20 next month, could be forgiven for feeling cheesed off. The four countries have named their squads for the event, which takes place in South Africa, and there is a distinct sense of a "couldn't care less" attitude. The hosts, who are 11/2 with Totesport and have drifted elsewhere, found no place for Jacques Kallis, one of the best batsmen in the world, and Andrew Hall, an all-rounder perfectly suited to the format. Of course it could be argued that Kallis is not the fastest of scoring batsmen but the argument that the best players can adapt has some weight. New Zealand would have been well-fancied at 9/1 but without captain Stephen Fleming, the brainiest cricketer on the planet and a man who led Nottinghamshire to England's domestic Twenty20 finals day, forget it. It is perhaps not surprising that Pakistan have decided to get the brush out and sweep away a lot of the old deadwood but the omission of Abdul Razzaq is crazy. Even he can't understand it. Razzaq, who has taken 246 wickets and scored 4,465 runs in ODIs, said: "I don't know what the logic was". India are by far the worse offenders and you would have to be nuts to consider backing them at 10/1 with SportingOdds. The Indians have been vehemently opposed to the introduction of Twenty20 in the rest of the world and they have shown their displeasure after its rise to the international scene. There will be no Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar or Sourav Ganguly in their line-up and given how the format rewards teams with stellar batsmen, it is obvious that India have no interest in winning the thing whatsoever.