Paul Lewis: The people's game arrives

The HRV Cup has been a success - enjoyed by Ross Taylor, cricketers and crowds alike. Photo / Getty Images

There was a moment, as Ross Taylor hit the winning runs to beat Northern Districts in the HRV Cup, which rather laid to rest some bogeys regarding Twenty20 cricket.

Taylor hit a six for Central Districts to win a tight, rain-shortened match to make today's final against Auckland. With the winning run, Taylor galloped off on a lap that would have done Sunline proud.

Holding his bat aloft, he sprinted around the field, mouth open; hooting and hollering his joy. He ran so far and so fast that his team-mates couldn't catch him.

He ended up in front of some Northern Districts supporters where, shades of the tribal energies displayed in British football, unpleasantries were exchanged until Taylor was engulfed by his colleagues who performed that group-hug, bouncing, cluster-clump thing.

So it meant something to him, then. Taylor, a test, one-day and international player with a growing reputation - and vice-captain of the Black Caps - thought enough of a mere game of domestic Twenty20 to light up like that.

It rather put to the sword the theory that modern cricketers are stimulated only by the smell of cash. Years ago, a flatmate of deep pockets persuasion was set up by those of us who knew about his interest in money.

"Look, 20c," he exclaimed at the coin we had laid in his path, pocketing it while the rest of us fell about laughing.

There is a suspicion modern cricketers are possessed of a similar inability to let a financial chance slip - although we are talking much, much more than 20c and most of us understand that, in their shoes, we may be similarly inclined.

Yet Taylor - and a few other senior players - seem to have enjoyed the HRV Cup this season and there is no question it has benefited by having the Black Caps available.

It's a false summer, of course, as most seasons will not see the Black Caps as idle as they have been (internationally speaking) this January; touring sides will usually fill that time and domestic Twenty20 will have to do without them.

However, by any measure, the HRV Cup has been a success - maybe enough so that the loss of the internationals will not bother it in the future.

The crowds have turned up and the quality of the cricket has grown as the players have got their heads around Twenty20.

When CD played Auckland at Colin Maiden Park, for example, CD's Mathew Sinclair played a fine hand of 69 off 54 balls, by playing proper cricket shots.

It looked as if CD had done enough to take the game before a match-winning partnership between Scott Styris and Gareth Hopkins - the former again playing bona fide shots rather than ugly slogs; and the latter having a calculated swish.

When Twenty20 first came on the scene many observers - including, ahem, this writer - sneered at the hit and giggle stuff even though Australian skipper Ricky Ponting showed the way.

His innings at Eden Park against the Black Caps in front of a packed stadium showed you did not have to be Barry The Basher.

Since then, there is no question that the batting, bowling and certainly the fielding skills have increased in Twenty20. Close finishes, like that in the Auckland-Otago match last week, are common.

Let's hope the interminable wait of about 45 minutes to bowl the two sudden-death overs isn't.

But even more than that is the response from the fans. Embattled CD coach Dermot Reeve called it "the people's game" the other day and while that might be a bit fanciful, there is a measure of truth in it as well.

At Colin Maiden Park, there has been the altogether pleasant sight of watching families enjoy the game. Thousands of people on blankets, with umbrellas, chilly bins, beer bottles, picnics and hordes of kids - cricket hasn't seen this for some time.

It took the mind back to playing cricket in the UK where one match found us playing at the local squire's grounds in deepest Buckinghamshire.

There was a castle overlooking the cricket ground, people sat around the boundaries on blankets, shooting sticks, fold-up chairs, with their hampers and Sainsbury's sauvignon blanc.

If the ball was hit out of the square, it often found its way through a wooden fence to the high-grassed fields and the lake beyond.

The fielder, as he searched for the ball, would encounter one or all of these species: deer, Canada geese and horses. It was idyllic and connected directly to the soul of the game.

Colin Maiden Park - and other Twenty20 venues around the land - have been doing that too, albeit without that kind of tranquil gentility.

But hard-fought Twenty20 cricket in front of an approving crowd enjoying the day out was a powerful Kiwi connection to the heart of the game here - not to mention a considerable fillip, watching people enjoy themselves at the cricket as they used to.

It was powerful medicine, too, watching the small army of kids hunting autographs - and a big pat on the back for Brendon McCullum for signing just about everything that came his way at the Otago Volts vs Auckland Aces game.

From such small gestures do sporting futures grow. Styris, at an earlier game, waved away the kids. Shame. Maybe he signed later; hope so.

Twenty20 has been fingered often as the agent of doom for test cricket but we traditionalists may just have to park our bias and concede that maybe this version of the game could have an effect all its own.

There is still plenty to sneer at - like the sight of Black Caps such as Shane Bond, Styris and Jacob Oram giving up test cricket to concentrate on the more lucrative shorter versions.

Craig McMillan retiring from international cricket and citing health and personal reasons before turning up in the ICL can still engender cynicism.

Test cricket will always be the pinnacle of the game. It doesn't matter how many surveys there are quoting a growing percentage of players as saying that Twenty20 is.

I don't care how many test/international runs/wickets they have made/taken, anyone who says tests are not the business is talking through a hole in their helmet.

That's the key. If Twenty20 can help lift attendances and appreciation of cricket, including tests, then it will have performed a mighty task.

It's not yet clear whether it will or whether those who go along are just the curious or the 'fair weather sailors' who will not follow the game into deeper waters.

But it's a good start.