The dust has now settled on the Twenty20 World Cup. I’ve been too busy to write much about it (save to laugh at the Australians), but some reflection is in order.

Firstly, England’s women’s team is awesome, particularly Claire Taylor who is one of the classiest batsmen it has been my pleasure to watch. Katherine Brunt’s demolition of New Zealand (3 for 6 in her four overs) meant that the final was not a great competition, but her rather piratical black eye helped assure viewers that this was no genteel pastime for cultured ladies, but rather a serious sporting event.

As for the men, I couldn’t be happier for Pakistan. Their country is going through an awful time right now and, as I’ve mentioned before, the country’s love of cricket is one of the things that helps unite it, especially in the face of terrorism. Here’s hoping this win does more good than simply put a trophy in a cabinet and make a few sportsmen richer.

The real winner, however, is Twenty20 cricket. Most of the games proved to be very entertaining, and ticket sales were apparently around 96%, so the tournament will have made good money. Significantly, quality bowling was what made the difference between success and failure. I didn’t bother listening to the BBC, but I’m sure Jonathan Agnew still has his head in the sand and is saying that bowlers are only in the game to make up the numbers, and that cricket as we know it is doomed. This tournament has made him sound even more stupid than usual, because clearly bowlers have been thinking very seriously about the game, and are fighting back well.

Not that the batsmen have been standing idle. Dilshan’s scoop shot is a wonder to behold. And this brings me to my point, which is that Twenty20 has brought with it a huge amount of innovation in playing styles and tactics.

When I was a kid, cricket was a very conservative game. The MCC published a coaching manual that explained exactly how the game should be played. In those days a player who was very successful at county level could be passed over for an England place because his batting style was deemed incorrect. You still hear people talking about playing “proper shots”, and it was only last year that Kevin Pietersen’s switch hit provoked howls of outrage from cricket journalists.

Now of course there’s a place for all that. There are good reasons why young players are taught to “play straight”. But just as Jenson Button’s driving style is nothing like the way you get taught to drive on public roads, so the way that a star batsman like Shahid Afridi plays is by no means straight out of the coaching manual. These days that’s OK as long as it helps his team win.

The world has changed. Cricket is no longer played in an Empire on which the sun never sets, in a world whose inhabitants expect it to be the same generation after generation. We now live in a world that is ruled by innovation, and Twenty20 cricket is a marvelous example of that.