Are we having fun yet?

The Twenty20 World Cup is well underway.

Some spectacular hitting, close finishes, unexpected heroes. Daniel Vettori and Chris Schofield have been great performers. Yuvraj scored six sixes of a Stuart Broad over yesterday. India have recovered well from around 60-4 to post 150+ against South Africa today (SA haven't started batting at the time of writing).

Yet, through it all, I'm emotionally disengaged. Maybe its all going by too fast.

Great cricket isn't about sixer hitting any more than a great love story is about designer clothing. It takes time to get into the player's skins, to hear their back-stories, reflect on the twists and turns that happen as the game unfolds. It takes time to engage the imagination. It's when the imagination is engaged that cricket is no longer just about slugging the ball 100 yards. Cricket can become high drama. About determination and destiny. About character and human frailty. Cricket becomes a metaphor for life itself.

That happens most effectively in test series, precisely because it is slow moving. Ganguly's India v Waugh's Australia through 2001 - 04. The Ashes in 2005. They were gripping not because of the sixer hitting. Skills served a larger drama. Cricket is fun for the same reason that reading fiction is fun: both invite the use of imagination.

This could change. An India Pakistan final will give even Twenty20 a memorable emotional edge. But so far, its been about guys hitting big sixers. No human drama to capture the imagination, yet.