Agree with other posters on the value of wickets, they obviously do mean a lot. Lose early wickets and the team cant be as aggressive, lose them late and the new batsmen in is more likely to dot ball and less likely to hit a six.
To add further penalty will see batsmen become more risk adverse, it'll become like the ODI when the middle overs outside of power plays become an accumulate mode.
Note the ODI last night, theres no way Australia shouldve won that after the horrid start. Without the early Indian wickets they wouldve cruised home. But getting a couple, then forcing the bats to be more cautious getting the RR up then grabbing another one or two killed them.
The question isn't whether wickets "matter" in T20.
The question is "do wickets matter
enough" ?
Obviously they matter. But they don't matter as much as they do in 50-over cricket, and they don't matter as much as in Tests. And in my opinion, they don't matter enough.
And for all the examples people give about wickets falling in T20 that "mattered," there are dozens of examples of wickets falling in T20 that didn't matter.
That's the problem with selective examples. If you have an agenda, you can be selective with your "examples."
The real issue as I see it, is there isn't an official penalty for losing your wicket. In Tests there is a penalty, in the sense that if you lose 20 wickets, you lsoe the match. If you lose a wicket the penalty is that you are one wicket closer to losing the match.
But ASSUMING that a team won't get bowled out in T20 cricket (yes I know it occasionally happes but it's rare) there is no official penalty for losing your wicket. Yes a new batter comes to the crease and this
usually means a slower scoring rate but it doens't guarantee a slower scoring rate. There is no official rule that states that if you lose a wicket your scoring rate must legally slow down. And that's really the problem. There is no OFFICIAL penalty. It's even possible, that the scoring rate increases by bringing in a batter who goes berserk.
The funamental issue as I see it is bringing in an official penalty for losing your wicket (that being losing 5 runs). NOT as a gimmick. But as a practical and logical way of forcing batsmen to care more for their wicket, and forcing bowlers to actually try to take wickets, and to officially reward the fielding team with a measurable reward.