T20 Blast "drags on a little bit" says Australia's Adam Zampa

In an interview with an Australian newspaper, the spinner has called for the format to be cut shorter after seeing crowds leaving games early during his time with Essex

Australia legspinner Adam Zampa has called for T20 matches to be cut shorter after watching spectators leaving games early during his overseas stints with Essex in the T20 Blast.

Zampa, who has featured in 75 white-ball internationals for his country and played in domestic leagues around the globe, made the comments in an interview with the Sunday Herald Sun.

The 27-year-old has compared the three-hour duration of a typical T20 match to rugby's 40-minute halves and the AFL's 20-minute quarters, suggesting instead that each innings could be cut to just 60 minutes for the benefit of fans.

"Sometimes I feel like T20 cricket drags on a little bit," Zampa said.

"T20 cricket is seen as the shortest format but I found when I was in England playing for Essex that with a 7pm start, people started to leave at 10pm.

"They wanted to get home. You could see a few people leaving, and obviously you've got the train times as a factor and bed times and kids have got to get to school the next day."

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Whilst T20 Blast innings have had a 75-minute time limit since the format's inception in 2003, with six-run penalties to be awarded for each over before the last that is not completed in this period, cut-off times are frequently extended at the discretion of the on-field umpires. 

Reasons for this can include replacing lost or damaged balls, assessing and treating injured players, long distances between the players' dugouts and the pitch being used, and consulting the third umpire during televised games. Group games also have 30 to 60 minutes of extra time allocated before over reductions are made to increase chances of full games in cases of inclement weather.

Zampa's comments come ahead of his participation in the ninth season of the Big Bash League, which will be the first edition of the competition to allow its teams to call an IPL-style timeout during their 80-minute batting innings. 

BBL head Alistair Dobson previously described the new 90-second pause as adding "an extra tactical dimension to the outcome of the game", echoing language used around the 150-second timeout available to bowling sides during The Hundred, the ECB's new competition launching next summer.

Zampa, who took 12 wickets in as many matches to help Essex lift their first T20 Blast trophy this summer, is yet to confirm whether he will return to the county for a third season in 2020.

However, he will feature for Andrew McDonald's Birmingham Phoenix side in the new tournament after being selected at the £40,000 level in last month's draft.

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