CRICKET may at times be weighed down with corruption, controversy and conflict but just occasionally, someone has a great idea.

Tuesday is such a moment with the start of the qualifying rounds of the sixth World T20 in India.

The first teams you see will be Zimbabwe and Hong Kong, then you will spot Ireland, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Scotland and an Oman team from the Persian Gulf comprising Indian and Pakistani expatriots.

It is another week before the big boys such as India, Australia and England roll into the tournament but that is the beauty of the schedule.

At last someone has designed a format which enabled cricket to water its seeds and grow the small nations without slowing down the tournament or turning it into a series of horrendously one-sided contests.

Eight lowly ranked teams will compete this week for two sports in the final draw which starts on Sunday.

This “soft’’ start is a clever concept because, by playing this week, the small nations all feel part of the big show even if they make the major rounds or not.

If cricket is serious about global expansion, T20 has to be its messenger and formats like this must be the way to go.

No one loves Test cricket more than Greg Chappell but even he recently admitted that it is totally unrealistic to think the game can grow its global brand through the five-day game.

media_camera Minnows like Hong Kong will play a tournament before ‘the tournament’.

Those days are gone.

To prepare a team for Test cricket requires four-day domestic competitions and a huge budget that the smaller nations simply do not have.

The ICC revealed that one unidentified nation is under investigation for match fixing and it is likely to be one of the poorly paid, cash-starved lower-ranked teams.

There is so little money in Zimbabwean cricket that Jason Gillespie, when coaching the Midwest Rhinos, once had to send his wife Anna off to the baker to buy bread and make sandwiches otherwise the players went hungry.

No wonder they have fallen off the radar as a Test nation.

But anyone can have a crack at T20. It’s easier to fund than the longer games and in a 20-over game any team is a puncher’s chance of landing one on the chin of the champion.

The emerging nations have many stories that enrich the game.

The Aghanistan team, which includes several players who learnt their craft in refugee camps, have got used to training with gunships hovering overhead.

Bangladesh can get 30,000 fans to a home game and recently beat Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the Asia Cup.

Cricket is played in regions such as Nepal, one of the games emerging teams, where games take place between the flowing mountain streams at the foothills of the Himalayas.

Oman are so excited at getting a start in the World T20 that they have redesigned their national logo and erected new floodlights and turf wickets in the belief that this is just the start of long and prosperous journey.