Judging by the success of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa and the enthusiasm it has elicited from the public and the players, the shorter form of the game is here to stay.

And according to ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, the global competition is likely to become a regular feature of the world body’s calendar.

Speaking in Durban ahead of the semi-final, Speed said: “There have been some outstanding matches and some outstanding individual performances. The atmosphere in each of the grounds has been outstanding; Lots of people making lots of noise and enjoying themselves and enjoying the cricket. And they have been well and truly entertained by the players. One of the other features is that the players seem to be enjoying it and it’s great to see them being so enthusiastic about their afternoon or evening on the cricket field.”

“The next World Twenty20 event will be in 2009 in England. Again it will be short and sharp. Thereafter, after the 2011 World Cup, we need to make a decision whether we will play two Twenty20s in 2012, 13 and 14 or whether there will be two Champions Trophies and one Twenty20. The indicators from this event, and the enthusiasm we’ve seen from this event, show that Twenty20 is going to be very popular so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we played Twenty20 world events in 2012 and 2014,” he added.

“If we can keep playing it at a high level in counties, states and provinces and if we can bring out the international event as part of ICC’s group of international cricket tournaments every two years or so, I think that’s a great idea.”

Speed said that a self-imposed limit on the number of Twenty20 Internationals will remain in place, however, with each member country only allowed to play three home and four away internationals in any year, as the emphasis stays on domestic competitions in the shorter form of the game.

He added that he had been somewhat surprised at just how hugely popular the ICC World Twenty20 has been with the South African public who have flocked to the grounds even when their own team wasn’t playing.

While there are still those who remain critical of the shorter form of the game, Speed maintained that it was appealing to a different audience and bringing people back to the game of cricket.

“I think there will be people out there who will continue to criticise this format and will find reasons to criticise it and that’s not surprising - that’s human nature,” he said.

“I certainly don’t mind that criticism if people say that they prefer another form of cricket to Twenty20, I’m perfectly happy with that. As long as they are happy with one form or other of the game. What we’re seeing here is that new people are coming to cricket. That’s a major positive.”

As for what lessons the ICC has learned from a World Cup in the West Indies earlier this year that elicited some rather fierce criticism, Speed added: “They are very different events. There were a number of negatives from the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. We were very disappointed with the crowds. The lesson we learnt from that is we needed to charge less. We’ve done that here and the grounds for all the major matches have been full so that’s great.”

“This is a shorter, sharper event and that’s a lesson we learned from the World Cup but they are very different events. The World Cup is our marquee event. It’s the major event, the one that every four years, one day cricket teams are judged by. I don’t think we can be too carried away with running a short, sharp event here. We need to run a World Cup that gives the stature that that event requires so over the next six months or so, decisions will be made over the format of the 2011 and 2015 World Cups. And we’ll see where we end up there.”

Judging by the success of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa and the enthusiasm it has elicited from the public and the players, the shorter form of the game is here to stay.

And according to ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, the global competition is likely to become a regular feature of the world body’s calendar.

Speaking in Durban ahead of the semi-final, Speed said: “There have been some outstanding matches and some outstanding individual performances. The atmosphere in each of the grounds has been outstanding; Lots of people making lots of noise and enjoying themselves and enjoying the cricket. And they have been well and truly entertained by the players. One of the other features is that the players seem to be enjoying it and it’s great to see them being so enthusiastic about their afternoon or evening on the cricket field.”

“The next World Twenty20 event will be in 2009 in England. Again it will be short and sharp. Thereafter, after the 2011 World Cup, we need to make a decision whether we will play two Twenty20s in 2012, 13 and 14 or whether there will be two Champions Trophies and one Twenty20. The indicators from this event, and the enthusiasm we’ve seen from this event, show that Twenty20 is going to be very popular so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we played Twenty20 world events in 2012 and 2014,” he added.

“If we can keep playing it at a high level in counties, states and provinces and if we can bring out the international event as part of ICC’s group of international cricket tournaments every two years or so, I think that’s a great idea.”

Speed said that a self-imposed limit on the number of Twenty20 Internationals will remain in place, however, with each member country only allowed to play three home and four away internationals in any year, as the emphasis stays on domestic competitions in the shorter form of the game.

He added that he had been somewhat surprised at just how hugely popular the ICC World Twenty20 has been with the South African public who have flocked to the grounds even when their own team wasn’t playing.

While there are still those who remain critical of the shorter form of the game, Speed maintained that it was appealing to a different audience and bringing people back to the game of cricket.

“I think there will be people out there who will continue to criticise this format and will find reasons to criticise it and that’s not surprising - that’s human nature,” he said.

“I certainly don’t mind that criticism if people say that they prefer another form of cricket to Twenty20, I’m perfectly happy with that. As long as they are happy with one form or other of the game. What we’re seeing here is that new people are coming to cricket. That’s a major positive.”

As for what lessons the ICC has learned from a World Cup in the West Indies earlier this year that elicited some rather fierce criticism, Speed added: “They are very different events. There were a number of negatives from the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. We were very disappointed with the crowds. The lesson we learnt from that is we needed to charge less. We’ve done that here and the grounds for all the major matches have been full so that’s great.”

“This is a shorter, sharper event and that’s a lesson we learned from the World Cup but they are very different events. The World Cup is our marquee event. It’s the major event, the one that every four years, one day cricket teams are judged by. I don’t think we can be too carried away with running a short, sharp event here. We need to run a World Cup that gives the stature that that event requires so over the next six months or so, decisions will be made over the format of the 2011 and 2015 World Cups. And we’ll see where we end up there.”