Darren Sammy and Shahid Afridi critical of NatWest T20 Blast

Darren Sammy and Shahid Afridi are teammates of the Hampshire side in the NatWest T20 Blast. England limited-overs wicketkeeper Jos Buttler also echoed the same, admitting that the tournament’s once-a-week “appointment to view” format makes it hard for specialist players to maintain their form and focus over the course of an elongated tournament.

“It’s frustrating for the players and the fans that we don’t have a competition like the IPL,” Buttler said. “It feels as if our domestic players are missing out. After all, we did create Twenty20, but we’ve not taken it on.

Also read – Nobody can stop Kohli at the moment: Muttiah Muralitharan

“Our teams don’t have to have different names, but we should have fewer teams, and go with a Big Bash-style tournament. And if you hold it as a block, you’re going to attract the best players.”

West Indie skipper for the World T20 Darren Sammy also stated that playing a T20 tournament with matches over the weekend was something not desired by anyone. Sammy also added that T20 cricket must be played at a much faster pace.

“It’s a difficult tournament, at least three months, it’s long,” Sammy told ESPNcricinfo. “It can be frustrating playing one or two games every weekend. It’s Twenty20, you’ve got to be playing it fast.

“I want my six-pack again,” Sammy joked. “I am probably going to have a set schedule to do some gym. Most of the time the first team is away during the week, so I’ll get some training in with the second team. I’ll probably visit London with my family, and get some net practice in.”

“England is my second home, I always enjoy my cricket here,” added Afridi. “But I’ve already talked to a few officials, that we should organise it and finish it in a month. It’s not easy playing one game than a four-day game then another T20, but as a professional cricketer, you can adjust yourself.”

“I remember back in 2003, when I was here in June, everybody’s on the train wearing helmets, I was like ‘what’s going on?’ It was T20, England started this thing and now, to see it going on all over in that period of time.”

“But the standard has always been of good quality, and that’s the most important thing,” he added, citing the progression of England’s team to the final of the World T20 in Kolkata, where only Carlos Brathwaite’s astonishing six-hitting in the final over stood between them and a second World T20 title.

“I was not surprised they made it to the finals, actually. We played them in the very first match in Mumbai, we defeated them but since then they didn’t look back,” said Sammy. “We met again in the finals, Carlos did his thing in the last over, but it shows England have quality T20 players.

“Joe Root is a world-class player, Ben stokes, Jos Buttler – they’ve come through playing T20 in England. The standard is good so I wasn’t surprised to see England play well. They’ve won a World Cup before [World T20 in 2010] and I know they don’t play much around the world, so whatever T20 they are playing here, it’s about high standards. That’s why they are making it to finals of world tournaments.”