Prepare for pyjamas in The Parks

And when captain Oliver Sadler leads the Oxford University team down the steps of the stately pavilion at The University Parks to face Cambridge on June 6, he will be looking on to a scene that has hardly changed since the days of WG Grace.

Surrounded by English oak and beech, along with more exotic varieties like the American smoke tree and purple-leaved catalpa, it is a tree spotter's paradise.

As the sports historian Dr Peter Davies wrote in his history of Oxford University Cricket Club: "The cricket field is surrounded and enveloped by a kaleidoscope of greenery. In the summer it is a picture. Throw in a smattering of courting couples, kissing and cuddling in the sun, and you have a perfect cricketing venue."

All this while it remains the only place in England where first-class cricket can still be watched without payment.

Spectators spread around the ground will sit on benches commemorating great cricketers of the past: "Colin Cowdrey Captain OUCC Kent & England Remembered by Oxford Friends."

Cowdrey himself turned in one of the most romantic descriptions of The Parks recalling how "bookworms nestled in the grass around the boundary, vagrants paused to investigate, girls from language schools swished by, old men dozed in deck chairs, young nannies tamed restless infants - all sought, and found, peace in The Parks".

But the tranquillity will be literally knocked for six when Sadler and his side step out of the pavilion on June 6.

Clutching a pink ball and modelling the Oxford side's snazzy dark-blue strip, just the sight of him should be enough to have some elderly club members choking on their Chablis. Then there will be the loud music to mark the fall of every wicket - and perhaps cheerleaders.

For Oxford and Cambridge are about to embrace the razzmatazz and shameless slogging of Twenty20 cricket.

Never mind blaring music, until now The Parks did not even have a public address system, just birdsong, banter and the sound of willow on leather.

Being the antithesis of vulgar commercialism, however, does not put punter posteriors on seats.

Instead of a few dozing old codgers snoring behind their Telegraphs, a bumper crowd is hoped for on June 6.

An additional element of the game will be a live Internet video streaming of the game around the world, organised by live web specialists M3U.com ltd.

So up to date will it be, that the Varsity Twenty20 contest will be one of the first to make use of the embryonic new pink ball, still being tested by the MCC, the guardians of the laws of cricket. (White balls, previously used in night matches, have been found to deteriorate more quickly than the red ones).

It would be wrong, however, to pretend that Oxford University Cricket Club, one of the most famous sporting institutions in the country, has up to now been able to duck the ferocious pace of change overwhelming cricket.

Hammerings at the hands of every half-decent county side led many to question whether OUCC deserved its first-class status.

"Throughout the 19th and into the 20th century, it was a commonplace to pick up a paper and read about an Oxford victory over a county side," Dr Davies tells us. "In the post-war period, such an event became a rarity, and by the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s Oxford cricket had fallen into such a state of disrepair that counties played second-string elevens and batsmen rubbed their hands with glee at the prospect of visiting The Parks and bolstering their batting average with a century or a lovely not out."

So, eight years ago OUCC merged with Oxford Brookes University to create an Oxford 'academy' to offer counties a sterner test.

The academy team has played Twenty20 cricket in The Parks against Oxfordshire, while the three-day Varsity Match was moved from Lord's in 1995 - replaced at the headquarters of cricket by a one-day fixture. But a Twenty20 Varsity Match was regarded by some as a step too far.

However, the university's director of sport Jon Roycroft, pictured left, says that when sponsors suggested a Twenty20 between Oxford and Cambridge they were "pushing at an open door".

"Because Oxford and Cambridge is the oldest first-class game in the world there is some intransigence about change. But the university understands what is happening with cricket and is adapting accordingly. For the oldest first-class cricket game to move to the most extreme form of modern cricket is really amazing."

He produces a letter from one disgruntled old member about this new form of cricket.

It reads: "We have the dreadful prospect of coloured kit in The Parks. Why go to this expense?"

But Mr Roycroft says this is nothing compared with some of the bouncers he faced when plans of the merger with Brookes first became known. There is still hate mail about that eight years later.

"I personally don't like the use of music," admits Mr Roycroft. "But Twenty20 is a big part of the wider cricketing world now. It's about making cricket more exciting and getting public support."

He fears there is truth in that old saying about people only valuing what they have to pay for. And perhaps the fact that cricket has always been free at The Parks has meant it has never been the big sporting attraction it deserves to be.

Every spring, test players perform at The Parks - Ian Botham suffered the back injury playing at The Parks which was to make bowling painful for the rest of his career - yet there is precious little interest beyond a few diehards.

The prospect of floodlights in The Parks would certainly add to the excitement.

But the club has wisely chosen to have nothing to do with such a potentially vicious googly.

Besides, by starting the match at 4pm in June, light is unlikely to be a problem. The day will actually start at 11am with the 'Cuppers' final between the two top Oxford colleges, played over a slightly more respectable 40 overs-a-side.

Oxford captain Oliver Sadler will finish his law finals only the day before the big match. He certainly does not sound like a man burdened by history, or blue pyjamas come to that.

"Twenty20 is taking off, so it is nice to see it coming to Oxford," he said. "It is wonderful to think that in 30 or 40 years' time, with this fixture going strong, I will be able to look back and say that I played in the first one.

"The squad is really looking forward to it. It is a form of cricket that requires specific skills. You cannot just turn up and expect to be good at a totally different form of the game. We have to accept that it requires different tactics and we are working hard to tailor our skills. It should be a great atmosphere."

Still, it is unlikely the match will stir the hysteria surrounding the launch of the Indian Premier League, which has seen 20-over cricket backed with breathtaking wealth and Bollywood glamour.

Twenty20 also has a greater sponsorship pull. The legal practice Charles Russell, which has offices in both Oxford and Cambridge, will be the title sponsors of the event for a four-year period.

James Holder, managing partner, said: "The exciting format of Twenty20 means that the sport is rapidly growing in popularity in the UK. This is the perfect time to introduce it to the Varsity sporting calendar."

Dr Simon Porter, chairman of OUCC and a driving force behind Oxfordshire cricket, said: "We are in changing times. You see how things are taking off in India.

"The way to preserve tradition is to move forward as well. If you simply say 'no' to change, you will die like the dinosaur. Young men want to play it because the stars of cricket are playing Twenty20. It doesn't conflict with tradition. Tradition has to adapt."

Besides, the four-day Varsity Match, with whites, a red ball, spinners, orthodox shots and carefully constructed innings, is not to disappear.

The oldest of contests will grow older and older gracefully.

The 'proper' Varsity game will be played at The Parks - it is now hosted alternately by Oxford and Cambridge - between July 1 and 4, amid the usual arboreal serenity.

But serenity and grace will be absent from The Parks on June 6, when Oxford will get its first glimpse of a noisy cricketing newborn.