As far as 20-over games go, the England versus Australia encounter in Cardiff on Sunday was pretty good: plenty of runs scored and a finish that went right down to the wire.
In short, everything the format is supposed to produce. Yet it was difficult not to be slightly confused as to why the game was actually taking place.
It was a one-off, three-hour thrash with next to nothing in the way of context and serving no more purpose than to fill a few hours on the TV schedules.
Say what you like about endless, meaningless one-day internationals but at least they are played in series.
Three games here, five games there, perhaps seven, maybe a triangular tournament – but not as a stand-alone contest.
The argument is often put forward as to the place of Twenty20 in the greater scheme of things; should it be an international game as well as domestic, or just the latter?
A few years ago a very good case could have been formed for the second of these two options. The format had proven to be a success in England where it was born, and other countries were starting to jump eagerly on the bandwagon.
Yet the international game’s initial forays into the concept were treated with an attitude that bordered on the frivolous.
There was the distinct sense that those doing the planning were merely paying lip service rather than giving it due care and attention. Just another game to squeeze into an already crowded calendar.
But once a World T20 competition was established, with the newest format now in possession of some traction, that surely should have changed.
Yet here we are, a few years down the line, and England are playing Australia in a glorified exhibition. Apollo Creed’s ultimately fatal fight against Ivan Drago in Rocky IV had more substance.
Come March next year, the world’s cricket-playing nations will gather in Bangladesh for the sixth staging of the World T20 and barely any of them will have bothered to prepare accordingly.
England have five more 20-over games before they go to the subcontinent. They might as well not bother.
Contrast this with the way they went about getting ready for the World Cup a few months ago: the winter schedule was cleared of Test matches and given over to ODI cricket.
(I know their subsequent performances were dreadful but at least the thought was there!)
Whether you’re a traditionalist who believes Test cricket should be given preferential treatment or somebody who thinks the opposite, I bet you can’t understand why so little time is dedicated to the international strand of the Twenty20 game.
There is so much flux in and around such a short game, and the search for a winning set of combinations is far from an exact science, yet a wing and a prayer is the default setting.
Has Reece Topley got the necessary tools to be a force at the top level? No time to find out.
Can Marcus Stoinis find an effective role in the Australian XI? Toss a coin.
Is Jos Buttler a place too low in the order? Better watch him playing for Lancashire.
How will Steve Smith form a potentially match-winning plan for his attack? Has he ever captained Rajasthan?
David Warner has been quoted as saying Australia will have a good chance of winning the tournament because of the experience garnered in the Indian Premier League and in conditions that will be similar to those presented in Dhaka and Chittagong.
He could have a point and with the way the game is he couldn’t really offer a better explanation, but that, right there, is where the problem lies.
The administrators have a hard enough job as it is trying to fit everything in, and could do with another problem as much as a hole in the head.
But if there is going to be a world event – and it is hardly going anywhere, is it – then the time in between would be better served by recognising as much.
After all, winning a series 1-0 is rather unsatisfying.
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