There is no good reason to hold warm-up games for the T20 World Cup (WC).

First of all, in this present day there are franchise cricket leagues in many countries. Secondly, the T20 game comprises an innings per team of 20 overs each, which, in practical cricket terms, takes three hours a game plus a 15-minute break between innings.

This means, from a physical aspect, there is no hard wear and tear on the body and there’s very little mental pressure on players that might be a cause for concern. Hence cricketers who are participating in this format of the sport, are not under the same stress as compared to when they’re playing the longer format of three-, four- or five-day cricket.

Also, it’s the reason why they can participate in so many different leagues. Therefore, there is no need for practice games against other participants in the WC. As a matter of fact, it takes away from the intrigue and excitement that there ought to be in WC games.

One only had to observe closely the warm-up game between the West Indies and Australia played at the Queen’s Park Oval on May 31 to recognise just how meaningless it was to the average spectator. Although I was happy to witness a sizeable crowd, which I honestly did not expect, the enjoyment of international sport is seeing just how the both teams plan their strategies to gain the advantage to win the game.

The critical stages of the game meant nothing. It was, to me, the same as watching net practice, as the result certainly did not matter. There were no points to earn, no advantages to gain and no prize to win.

It is said that match practice is better than net practice – but that’s only if it is a competitive match, something more meaningful than what was on display last Friday. There are lots of 20-over cricket leagues played these days and the surfeit of that format worldwide makes it less appealing.

The cricketers did not seem to care one way or the other. To them it was just an opportunity to bowl a few overs, play a few strokes and be happy to be in the middle again. It was fete-match cricket, or so it seemed.

It would have been of more value for the coach to put a few batsmen into the nets for longer batting session,s or for his bowlers to bowl more consistently on line and length, repeatedly maintaining their objective, ball after ball, an exercise of which the bowler can never get enough. It would help to improve one’s cricket for a WC game; plus the better team would come to the fore.

In participating in these practice games I could imagine the experienced teams planning to learn their opponent’s strong and weak points, especially those whom they have not played against before: maybe a promising youngster who bats well, or a leg spinner with a googly that’s hard to spot, or a fieldsman who is like quicksilver in the deep or one with a lightning throw that is very accurate.

For instance, WI fast bowler Shamar Joseph, who wrecked Australia at their home less than six months ago, played in the warm-up game. Any batsman he might have opposed in that