Twenty20 World Cup comes to town

The second cricket Twenty20 World Cup gets underway in England today with 12 teams taking part in 27 games over the next two-and-a-half weeks.

India, who won the inaugural tournament in South Africa in 2007, are being tipped to retain their title. Despite being hosts England have been given little chance of winning by commentators.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:Nick Hoult, the Telegraph: "Those not charmed by Twenty20 should look away now, although that will be easier said than done with 27 matches over 17 days set to be beamed to 218 countries, which makes this the most viewed event in cricket history. The Ashes may well occupy the thoughts of Anglo-Australian supporters but for everyone else this is the competition that matters, as shown by the rush for tickets, 80 per cent of which are sold."

Richard Hobson, the Times: "India are strong favourites to retain the trophy, an assessment based more on IPL experience than their record overseas. Even England (under Collingwood) beat them in the NatWest Series here in 2007 and two of their better players — Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag — have been injured during the warm-ups. South Africa have balance and outstanding fielders, while Australia were in excellent shape before losing Andrew Symonds yesterday. From the likely second group in the Super Eights, Sri Lanka, with the mystery spin of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, may prove stronger than New Zealand and Pakistan."

Stephen Brenkley, the Independent: "It is far too much to expect that England can win the ICC World Twenty20 which begins at Lord's today. Being in the final would represent progress of a kind which would make it possible to confuse their coach Andy Flower with a miracle-worker. A semi-final might represent the peak of realistic ambition, reaching the second round is a legitimate aspiration."

Duncan Fletcher, the Guardian: "There could, though, be another factor holding England back if and when they reach the Super Eight stage of the World Twenty20, and that's the lack of exposure their players have been given to the Indian Premier League. It's tough enough that they have been seeded to meet India, South Africa and Australia – even without Andrew Symonds – after the group games are over. But it's even harder when you consider that only England and Pakistan, whose players were not allowed to take part in the IPL, have failed to benefit from what is now the world's leading Twenty20 competition. The Aussies managed to get exposure for some of their unknown players, but Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah didn't even make it on to the field."

Mike Selvey, the Guardian: "What we have in the offing is a short sharp pertinent competition, followed by a top-rank Test series. And that, in years to come, may be the nature of things. As it stands, too much is superfluous. The Ashes series will be followed by two Twenty20 internationals and seven 50-over one-dayers, upon which the cricket world will move to South Africa once more for the meaningless Champions Trophy, an anachronistic scheduling millstone that predates the rise of Twenty20. Next spring, the Caribbean will host a rerun of this month's extravaganza, so the winner's tenure will be short-lived. International cricket seems to have more world championships than boxing." ·