I have to admit I am not great fan of Twenty20 cricket. By Arif Asif.

As someone who likes to watch all five days of the test match I kind of look down upon anyone who tells me the latest Twenty20 match!

Earlier in the summer I was at Natwest T20 blast game between Lancashire Lightening and Birmingham Bears. And I have to say it wasn’t what I expected.

I have been to several international Twenty20 matches in recent years and unless they are World cup knock out matches the others just haven’t really cut it for me. Especially at a domestic level.

Here, there was a level of razzmatazz and the game is over before it has really begun but I can see why they are quickly focussing more on this version of the game.

Families tended to be the focus here and getting more families into the ground can be a good thing.

The atmosphere was good despite the numbers and the Emirates OId Trafford team have made a real effort to change the way cricket is perceived to the masses.

I was always of the opinion that only cricket fans would be seen anywhere near a cricket pitch. How wrong I was.

I spoke to one American family, two of whom did not even know the rules to the game! They wanted a summer night out and they were happy just being at a spectacular venue.

I, myself was joined by actor Abdullah Afzal who is a keen cricket fan and was more than happy with how the evening panned out.

And he was quite adept at explain the rules to our American colleagues. Something I would not even have attempted.

In India it is clear the Indian Premier League has been a major hit. There are huge crowds for most games and the game has benefited from this worldwide exposure.

It wasn’t the thrilling end you normally get in a Twenty20 game but the result sent Lancashire supporters happy.

It was good to see the likes of Junaid Ali and Kabir Ali taking seven wickets between them and holding the visitors to a 15 run deficit.

For tickets for any Twenty20 blast games see: http://www.lccc.co.uk/lccc/tickets/