Great cricket, lame crowds

Tue, Aug 27, '24

 

First established in the summer of 2003, T20 cricket competition took off in Nottingham, England. Briefly, the idea was, as usual, to bolster seriously-falling revenues at the gates of professional cricket-playing English counties. It was determined that with some necessary rule changes, it would prove attractive enough to bring in crowds that didn’t attend cricket.

Its success, mainly because of the shorter playing hours, rapidly spread through the British Commonwealth and especially India, whose cricket hierarchy took to the idea like a Trini to doubles. Businessmen loved the idea, since they viewed it as a fast-moving game that would take no more than three hours.

And the T20 professional leagues of the world were born. Sponsorship was rapid. Players were invited from all over the world at enormous remunerations, offers they simply could not refuse.

Ultimately, because of the sheer number of cricket grounds in India and its huge population’s love of cricket, T20 was a gigantic success.

Read more at Newsday

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