Each team only has twenty overs, consisting of six bowls an over. Because this is so limited, the aim is to score as many runs as possible, hence the proclivity of the cricketers to hit the cricket ball quickly, rather than waiting for 'a good shot' or 'an elegant shot' or to block the shot and stall the game in any way.
Since the further the ball is hit, the more runs are possible, the bastman will aim it into the gaps between the fieldsmen and over their heads, thus taking more risks of being 'caught' or 'run out' than in a conventional 5-day test match.
This is what makes it the 'Big Bash' indeed. For once, cricket officials are smiling as the crowds are coming to watch these big bashers do their stuff. Moreover, each State team in this Twenty/20 big bash competition is permitted one overseas international cricketer; thus ensuring that there is at least someone who has international experience in bashing that ball for whatever they are worth.
The Indian Twenty/20 leagues have set the pace. The big money has arrived, the players are keen, the spectators and sponsors are right behind it, and Australia now has the Big Bash.
To match the spectacle of the style of this game, there is entertainment provided before the fixtures and during the interchange. And the spectator doesn't have to sit there all day, and still not see a result (as happens with a Test match). The game is over in a few hours – signed, sealed, delivered. In this way it is more similar to a footy match, or most other games. You come, you enjoy, you go.
Cricket chaplain and Baptist minister Mark Tronson has been reflecting on the Big Bash as to how it relates to our every day lives in our culture. We seem to live in a consumer world that emphasises the utmost importance of an instant response. He gives some examples of what was before and today's immediacy.
In more leisurely days, when you wanted to fill your car with petrol, you waited for the attendant to come and have a quick chat, fill your car, wash the windscreen, and check the tyres and oil if you asked him to (it was always 'he'). Then he would take your money and you would wait for him to bring the correct change – or you could meander into the office and chat to the person behind the cash register while finalising the payment.
Today, you operate the pump yourself, increasingly you can pay automatically right there at the pump without even walking to the office (as already occurs in USA and Europe), and you are on your way in minutes.
In those days, picking up a few 'forgotten' groceries involved a conversation with the shopkeeper, and waiting while he or she collected the items you wanted, packaged them, added up the bill and calculated your change. If there were other customers, the chances were that they were neighbours and you could catch up on gossip while you waited.
Today, you go to the supermarket, whizz through the specialised check-out for those with 15 items or less or use the automatic self-serve checkout, and breeze off to do the next item of business in your busy day.
The world of information has similarly been transformed: no need to wait days for the mail for an answer to a letter or for a cheque to arrive; no need to take a trip to the shopping centre to visit three or four offices in order to register your car or do your banking – switch on the computer and you can have your correspondence and financial transfers all done in half an hour.
There also is no need to visit the local library (where you may formerly have spent a pleasant half day and learnt about other things you didn't even know you needed to know) - and there is certainly no need to make awkward, time-consuming and expensive phone calls to specialised companies when you want information.
You can find anything you want under any of the search engines whether it be Google or Yahoo or whatever, and the world is at your finger tips. The Big Bash falls into this category of consumer 'instant gratification'.
M V Tronson has been reflecting that there are some things that take a long time to deliver, that are well worth the wait. He can think of investments such as the purchase of a home, the hard and long path to business success, the gaining of academic qualifications and the nature of academic research to name but four.
The Big Bash is for fun – it is pure entertainment - but the real art of serious cricket remains the Test Match which takes up to five full days, where it might be thirty minutes before a batsman is able to score a run. Here, there is a mind game at play as well as physical prowess. The test of endurance and concentration and skill at its ultimate is on display.
"But after all," muses Mark Tronson, "we realise that it is only a game after all. We need light relief at times, from the important stuff of life, such as our relationships, providing for a family, our values and belief systems, how we treat the less-well off both at home and abroad."
There are times in our lives where we require a break from the pressures, a break from the seriousness of life and the idea of the Big Bash, pleasure and leisure is both therapeutic and very necessary. It helps provide us with recreation – "re-creation" – of our mind and spirit.
"Thank the Lord for the big bashes of life. This illustrates the value of respite which is the focus of Well-Being Australia's ministry to athletes and coaches," concludes M V Tronson.