Watching Pakistan play Australia at the lovely Dubai International Cricket Stadium, it became clear that the Twenty20 format is best served by an IPL-type tournament. True, it was the last match of the series, the Aussies were keen to catch a flight home (well, actually, to South Africa for the IPL, but the principle is the same), they were not at full strength, and Pakistan was the keener side after having lost the one-day series. Understandable, but not forgiveable in a sporting encounter. Public performers have to be at their best at all times because this might be the only occasion many of the spectators will see them in action. It was a boring match, and spectators used to the IPL on television found it hard to believe that batsmen could be so unadventurous. There was a suggestion that the giant score board show the IPL match rather than the one on the ground. Perhaps an international match like this is too old-fashioned for the Twenty20. This is a post-modern, post-national, even a post-team format where no one cares who wins or loses so long as the entertainment level is high. Gimmickry, rather than tradition is at the heart of the format. You need to have a Shane Warne rubbing shoulders with a Yusuf Pathan, a Matthew Hayden batting with a Mahendra Dhoni and a United Nations of players on the field at any given moment to make the competition exciting. This obviously means that teams of the best take on the best – how else would Gilchrist and Gibbs open together – and the IPL saw that happening before anyone else. Teams have to be a mix of the best, thus guaranteeing the best action whether it is the DLF Greatest Hit or the CITI Can You Believe That Just Happened moment. If the Dubai match was any indication, no one is interested in what Shoaib Akhtar has to say to Mike Hussey any more. The next step might be the induction of the likes of Shilpa Shetty and Shahrukh Khan into their team's playing elevens – new rules can be quickly framed to ensure that their teeth and other body parts do not become martyrs to sport. Perhaps Hayden could open the batting with a cheer leader – the IPL is an evolving format, but the Twenty20 itself, at least as a national sport seems destined to die. International cricket stadiums – like airports – tend to be a tribute to man's lack of imagination. The late Douglas Adams made the point that no one has written an ode to the airport. The same is true of cricket stadiums, at least the recent ones. Dubai is the exception. Someone is bound to write a poem dedicated to it soon. The ‘ring of fire' lighting at the edge of the roof has done away with the ugly towers. There is a symmetry to the two-tiered seating that is soothing. The ground itself is a carpet of green – such a structure in the middle of a desert no longer surprises, considering the lovely golf courses in Dubai, for instance. The stadium was the real winner on the night. Pakistan-Australian encounters have an interesting history. In 1959, Dwight Eisenhower became the first US President to watch Test cricket when he visited the National Stadium in Karachi. This time it was the turn of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister of Dubai and the Vice President of the UAE, to visit a cricket stadium and be introduced to the teams. The game is being spread both at the grass-roots level as well as the tree
