A useful addition to sports literature.

Keeps the reader engaged from cover to cover.

Provides futuristic insights into cricket... (Buchanan) deserves credit.

There could be two good reasons to read Future of Cricket - The Rise of Twenty 20. First, its writer John Buchanan, former Australian coach who took the team to almost unparalleled heights. The second, it is on Twenty 20, the newest, shortest and the revolutionary format of cricket.

But it is a quickie; a case of yet another person getting on board the gravy train called Twenty 20 and the billion dollar worth Indian Premier League. This book covers IPL1 and the phase before IPL2.

Two IPL seasons on, Buchanan is no longer the Kolkata Knight Riders coach. Coached by him, Riders hit the bottom rung. He has written books on coaching philosophies like If Better is Possible and his 'multiple captain theory' emanated from his lateral thinking. As someone who is known for concepts and methodology, Buchanan was expected to deliver something different in this book, too. He tries hard to explain how it was not his aim to remove Sourav Ganguly from captaincy, but to introduce 11 leaders on the field. His theories do not have a practical conclusion, as he ends up creating controversies from theories.

He talks straight, and is candid about whether Sourav should be the captain. He even questions Sourav's insistence on continuing as an international cricketer.

But there is one flaw here—Buchanan's impression on Indian players and Indian cricket are based on his interactions with former India coach and fellow Aussie, Greg Chappell. And that should say it all. One cannot but think, while reading about his observations of Indian cricketers, whether all that has been written to attract controversy.

He devotes a lot of effort to understand the persona of Sourav Ganguly and, just to be on the safe side, insists on peace between him and the extremely complex, yet popular former Indian skipper. Yet, he takes potshots at Sourav—something which has become a bit of routine by all those who are unable to figure him out.

Thus, you have the "I think Sourav's time is over but Sourav doesn't". While Chappell, as coach of Team India, had the mindlessness to tell Ganguly he is over on the eve of a Test match, Buchanan admits the two agreed to disagree and that was that. Of course, it is a different matter that Sourav lived to tell the tale and went on his own terms after a dream comeback.

Buchanan also talks of the jamboree that IPL is - the parties, the glamour, the money, the player auctions (he was a pretty expensive coach, too!)... and makes his 'observations' on current Indian players like Yuvraj Singh. He does, though, give some insight into how the KKR franchisee carried out its cricket operations. Certain decisions like the inclusion of Shoaib Akhta, cricket's perennial bad boy, were made without discussions beforehand with Buchanan.

Perhaps, the purpose of the book is it makes you realise — for the first time — the truth that league cricket is just not the same or serious as international cricket, especially IPL.