A look at how T20 cricket has captured the market since 2003

by
4th November 2022

It has been 19 years since the first T20 match was played and over this time, this format of cricket which was designed to disrupt the game has surged in popularity. Indeed, in just under two decades, T20 cricket has gone from being a fringe format to the most popular edition of the game.

How has this happened and what makes T20 cricket now the most-watched version of the sport with fans in every part of the world from the streets of Birkdale to Harare?

It’s fast and exciting

Where else to start but by saying that one of the main reasons for T20 cricket’s popularity is that it is a fast and exciting version of the game. What’s more, unlike Test match cricket, which has often been accused of being too slow and tedious, T20 cricket is action-packed and thrilling. Unsurprisingly, this makes it much more appealing to casual fans who don’t have the time to spend hours watching a match. This takes us to one of the most significant reasons for T20’s rise to prominence; it’s shorter. All in all, a T20 match only lasts for around three hours, whereas a Test match can go on for five days. Why does this matter? Essentially, T20 cricket is much more convenient for people with busy lifestyles who still want to get their cricket fix. This is why the administrators have poured money into growing the format given that, in the world of business, willing foot traffic means higher profits.

The rules are easy to grasp

Being fast and time efficient also means that T20 is easier to understand as far as the casual observer is concerned. For instance, teams have to win a match by reaching a certain amount of runs before their allotted overs are up – it doesn’t get more straightforward than that. Conversely, Test cricket involves three sessions a day over the course of five days and teams have to take 20 wickets before they are declared the overall winner. The difference in rules, as you can see, is significant and has subsequently earned T20 the lion’s share of new fans.

Crucially, the swathes of supporters who watch the sport also do it to see explosive batting when you consider that batsmen are looking to score runs quickly by hitting boundaries as often as possible.


This means that there are often more fours and sixes in T20 cricket than in any other format which, goes without saying, makes the game more exciting to watch as the boundaries are cleared with ease. Although, it’s worth pointing out that even if boundaries are always predicted, T20 cricket is by its very nature, an unpredictable game. Chiefly and due to its shorter format, T20 cricket is often described as being a “lottery” as anything can happen in a short space of time with the eventual result of a match extremely unpredictable from one over to the next. Naturally, when a match follows such an enthralling script where the underdogs can win against all odds, people will always tune in.

In many respects, it’s a bit like the FA Cup in football where euphoria or heartbreak is always guaranteed as the big teams battle with the smaller clubs.

The islanders dance into the night in Kolkata

One stirring example of the famed unpredictable narrative of T20 cricket was when the West Indies spectacularly beat England in the final of the 2016 T20 World Cup after Carlos Brathwaite miraculously hit Ben Stokes for four consecutive sixes to hand the islanders a win very few saw coming. Although six years on from that memorable evening at Eden Gardens and the respective fortunes of the two nations couldn’t be any further apart after the West Indies were dumped out of the 2022 T20 World Cup in the first round. The Cinch English cricket team meanwhile, are riding the crest of a wave and is, as of the 1st of November, one of the strong favourites in the latest ICC T20 World Cup odds at a price of 11/4 to go all the way in Australia.

It’s important to stress that whilst the Windies will be hurting following events in Australia, T20 cricket lends itself to teams regaining their dominance quicker than the time it would take in other formats which ultimately means that their current status as the whipping boys of the international arena will undoubtedly be short-lived. We’ve seen it time and time again as the online cricket news outlets may tell one story today but the narrative would have changed soon after.


Interestingly, this is another reason why fans have taken to this dynamic format when you take into account that any hardship on the field in terms of results is often fleeting, which is unlike the Test arena, where nations can go decades without winning a series against the better sides in the world. Naturally, it doesn’t take much imagination to understand why fans don’t want to put themselves through five days of misery that has the potential to stretch over decades. In short, T20 is a great leveller and provides a platform for every nation to have their time in the sun.
When all is said and done, the evidence points towards T20 being here to stay as cricket fans make it their format of choice.

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