Kuala Lampur, Feb. 1 -- Every generation of cricket believes it has been appointed custodian of the game's soul.

And every generation is convinced that the next format will finally destroy it.

They said it when cricket stopped being timeless and started being timed.

They said it when whites gave way to colours, when floodlights replaced sunlight, when bats grew thicker and bowlers were told to entertain instead of intimidate.

They said it - loudly - when the 50-over game arrived.

In the 1970s, limited-overs cricket was treated as a novelty at best, heresy at worst. Purists insisted it would trivialise technique, compress patience into recklessness, and turn cricket into something vaguely unseemly. And yet, some of the sport's most my...