It has been 20 years since the birth of T20 cricket. Played as a simple side game, the game has now grown exponentially to become a wealth generating game worldwide.
It is interesting how T20 cricket has evolved into a fan-pleasing sport. In 2002, the English county cricket schedule suffered a major setback due to the ban on tobacco advertising.
It was then that England and Wales Cricket Board’s Commercial Manager Stuart Robertson proposed T20 cricket at the amateur and junior levels. The aim of T20 cricket was to attract young fans who did not have time to watch Test and ODI matches. The first official T20 county cricket tournament was held in 2003. The game was also an instant success attracting massive crowds. 27,000 fans gathered to watch the match between Middlesex and Surrey at Lord’s.
In England, the home of cricket, the last county-level ODI final in 1953 was bigger than this. The frenetic pace and dynamic attacking play of the batsmen is popular among the audience all over the world.
Following this, in 2005, New Zealand – Australia teams clashed for the first time in an international T20 cricket match in Auckland. Following this, the International Cricket Council, amazed by the growth of T20 cricket, organized the T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007. In this, the young Indian team led by Dhoni won the crown by defeating the arch rival Pakistan. Following this, T20 cricket became the norm in most of the tours.
After the Indian team won the 1983 ODI World Cup, the attitude towards the game changed in our populous country. A similar transformation took place when they won the T20 World Cup in 2007.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India wanted to capitalize on the 2007 win. As a result of this, the IPL T20 cricket series was born as a means of melting the ICL competition that had started to sprout in India. The IPL series, which was held over a 6-week period, brought the ICL to an end as scheduled and changed the global landscape of cricket. The players were drenched in the rain of money. Also T20 leagues emerged in Australia, England, West Indies, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In the next year, T20 cricket leagues will be launched in South Africa, UAE and USA on a big scale.
Apart from this, the impact of the IPL T20 matches has also started to shake up the calendar of the International Cricket Council. The ICC administrators have come to a decision not to hold international cricket matches from April-May from next year so that the world’s leading players can participate in the IPL series.