T10 should not be performed at the price of one other format, feels Kumar Sangakkara

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Kumar Sangakkara
Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara believes having an excellent bowling line-up is the important thing to successful matches within the T10 format.
“As in the T20 format, your bowling line-up has to do a lot of work in terms of winning games (in the T10 format),” mentioned Sangakkara.

“Yes, a team needs to have the runs on the board and the ability to score them but more often than not, the sides that have the variety and smarts in their bowling line-ups, usually win the shorter formats of the tournament, especially in pressure situations,” he added.
Speaking about the way forward for Test cricket amid the rising recognition of the T10 format, the 43-year-old mentioned, “Cricket is for everyone and when I say everyone, it’s a large cross-section of people with different likes and dislikes. It’s been wonderful to see the way cricket is continuously growing across various formats and feeding that passion and appetite for entertainment sports across the world.”
“The only thing we have to be careful of is that it (T10) shouldn’t be played at the cost of another format, but it is in some ways beneficial to the longevity of formats like Test cricket. With new shots and attacking captaincy, the shorter versions have done a lot of good and made Test cricket more exciting,” he added.
When requested about his position within the group because the mentor for Team Abu Dhabi within the upcoming season of Abu Dhabi T10, the 2014 World T20-winning participant mentioned that he would look to make the gamers perceive the significance of taking calculative dangers.

“As a mentor, it’s basically about getting players to understand that there’s no reward without risk, what are the calculative risks to be taken and the players need to have an open and creative mind, right from ball one to be able to do well in the T10 format,” mentioned Sangakkara.
“A lot of the players, who come here, are international stars, players that are playing at a high level of domestic or franchise cricket around the world and there are also young cricketers, who are extremely talented, but need a little bit more help in terms of understanding their own abilities and what is needed in terms of converting that in terms of performances on the field,” he added.
Team Abu Dhabi have some star gamers of their line-up, which embrace Chris Gayle, Chris Morris and Alex Hales, however Sangakkara mentioned that his group is not going to be solely concerning the skilled gamers.
“We have some superstar players in our team, but we also have some competent young players from around the world. It’s really about how well we can put together a side that compliments each other and that can withstand match-ups against its opposition,” mentioned the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) president.
“We would like to play an exciting brand of cricket, put down everything on the line in terms of effort, planning, strategy and tactics and hopefully, that will be enough to win,” he added.
The fourth version of the Abu Dhabi T10 League is slated to be performed from January 28 to February 6 on the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium