In recent times, the new form of domestic and international cricket, known as Twenty20, has grown exponentially both in terms of player exposure to the upper echelons of representative cricket, and popularity amongst audiences.
Twenty20... It's constant entertainment.
On an international stage we have seen the rise of the Twenty20 World Cup, won most recently by Pakistan which in itself brings greater interest to this form of the game as Pakistan aren’t considered powerhouses of international cricket, and on the domestic stage we have Twenty20 domestic leagues in India (The IPL), Australia (the Big Bash) and England (Twenty20 Cup).
We have also seen the emergence of the Twenty20 Champions League which takes all the domestic winners of their respective T20 competitions and pits them against each other to determine the world champion T20 outfit.
Not bad for a form of cricket that was only established in 2003, right?
This massive growth in the shortest version of the game has shown just how popular T20 cricket has become to fans from all over the world. A whole match can be watched in just over three hours, which is a lot more convenient than the other shorter form of the game in One Day Internationals (ODIs)…well that and the spectacle that is T20 cricket. Fast paced, explosive action for twenty overs each side that excites audiences and puts them on the edge of their seat. That will pull crowds every day of the week.
Records often tumble on a game-by-game basis in this form of the game and some of the figures are astounding. Yuvraj Singh currently holds the record for the fastest fifty in T20 cricket in an amazing twelve balls. Yes that’s right, TWELVE balls. That is a strike rate of over four hundred. Let me put that in Lehman’s terms for those who aren’t familiar with cricketing jargon; Singh was hitting an average of 4.16 runs for every ball he faced in that innings. It’s no wonder why people keep flooding the grounds for every T20 game held at either state or international level. It is almost like a new buzz and atmosphere comes over the ground in a T20 game.
Compare this, in stark contrast, to the current state of ODIs. To put it simply, they are in trouble. Viewers are finding them boring, with generally only the first five overs and the last five overs creating any excitement for the crowd. The middle forty overs in each innings are leaving a lot to be desired from the crowd’s point of view as they are growing weary of the slow run rates and lack of boundaries generalised with this part of the innings.
Compare the T20 match between Australia and Pakistan at the MCG on Friday night. A whopping 60,045 people turned out to watch the twenty overs per side fixture. Two days later at the same venue, a meagre 25,463 people showed to watch the opening one day match against the West Indies. Hardly impressive figures when compared to the massive numbers pulled by T20 crowds, even with the exciting Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard featuring in the travelling side.
But what is the remedy to these falling numbers and what seems to be an insurmountable task of becoming the most popular shorter form of the game? There have been suggestions to shorten ODIs to forty overs per side, but in reality, will this make this form of the game any better? It will surely just shorten the length of the game and will be seen as a way of replicating T20s, driving popularity even further down.
Another idea is to shorten the series length of ODIs, which seems to be the most feasible idea as 7 match series’ can often be stale and repetitive if a side happens to take an unassailable lead. Making ODIs a scarcer spectacle in cricket could also drive up anticipation and therefore numbers entering grounds.
Whatever decision the ICC makes, which is bound to be forced upon them soon with the current state of the game, the T20 format of the game not only looks like a smash-hit, but is also here to stay.
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