THE absence of some of the biggest names, either forced or voluntary, has taken the sheen away from the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship of cricket beginning last night in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly (all voluntary), Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (injury), New Zealander Stephen Fleming (selection), Australia’s Shaun Tait (injury) and Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar (disciplinary action) will all be missing from the 12-nation tournament.

A huge population of people with Indian roots in South Africa would have particularly loved to see how an in-form Tendulkar, fresh from his exploits in England, besides Dravid and Ganguly, would have fared in the shortest version of the game based on 20 overs per innings.

But the decision to stay away by the Indian stars, all in their mid-30s, means that they would never be able to play in a Twenty20 World Championship as the next competition would be held after four years.

By that time, Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly would be in their late 30s and presumably retired.

Hard-hitting batsman-cum-wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads Team India in Dravid’s absence and Yuvraj Singh will be the vice-captain while Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan are making their comebacks to the side.

As the championship comes just four months after the World Cup in the West Indies, some experts have their reservations about its success and its ability to attract crowds.

But given the fact that this is a different, fun version and also that it is the first time so many teams will be contesting in this format gives hope to the organizers that fans will pack the stadiums.

Apart from the 10 Test-playing countries — India, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England, West Indies, Zimbabwe and South Africa — Kenya and Scotland will be making up the field.

The teams have been divided into four groups of three each. The top two sides will advance to the quarterfinals, which will have four teams playing a round-robin league in two groups, followed by the semifinals and the final.

It is difficult to pick a firm favorite in this version of the game as the short span of an innings puts almost all teams on an equal footing.

The margin of error in Twenty20 is little, much less than the one-day internationals played on 50-overs-per-innings basis.

The final will be played in Johannesburg on Sept. 24.

(SD-Agencies)