Photo by Wikimedia Commons, CC by 2.0
Cricket used to be a patient game, with Test matches stretching across five days and one-day internationals demanding the best part of eight hours. Then, in 2003, the England and Wales Cricket Board tried something new. They launched Twenty20 cricket, and the impact of T20 cricket on the sport has been nothing short of a revelation. In a little over two decades, the game has become unrecognisable.
The Birth of a Format
The first official T20 match took place on 13 June 2003 at the Rose Bowl in Hampshire. Little was expected, given county cricket was struggling to attract younger fans at the time. Administrators saw the shortened format as a way to fill seats on Friday nights.
Little did they realise, it would work far, far better than anyone predicted.
Crowds turned up in fancy dress, music blared between overs, and matches finished in three hours. This was a far cry from Test match cricket: it was fast, loud, and designed for people with limited attention spans.
Fast forward just a few years, and in 2007, the ICC launched the first T20 World Cup in South Africa. India’s victory lit a fuse that would explode into the Indian Premier League the following year – and that’s when the format truly took off.
The IPL Effect
The IPL launched in April 2008 with a simple formula: take the world’s best players, add Bollywood glamour, and broadcast it to a billion people. The result was the richest cricket league on the planet.
Suddenly, players who earned modest incomes from their national boards could become millionaires in a month and a half. Case in point: Andrew Flintoff collected $1.55 million from the Chennai Super Kings in his maiden contract, while Shane Warne came out of retirement to captain the Rajasthan Royals. The money was simply too good to ignore.
The impact of T20 cricket and the IPL extended far beyond player salaries, however. Batters developed shots that didn’t exist a decade earlier, like the scoop, the reverse sweep, and the switch hit. Bowlers too, had to learn to vary their pace and disguise their slower balls. Even fielding standards went through the roof because every single run mattered.
What T20 Did to Batting
Before T20, a strike rate of 80 in one-day cricket was considered aggressive. Nowadays, that’s pedestrian. With the format rewarding risk-taking and punishing caution, players who could clear the boundary at will became the most valuable commodities in the sport.
Chris Gayle exemplified this shift. The Jamaican opener treated bowlers with contempt, launching balls into the stands with minimal footwork and maximum power. His 175 not out for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013 is still the highest individual score in T20 history — 66 balls faced, 17 sixes hit.
This approach filtered through to international cricket. Teams realised that the old methods of building an innings, rotating strike, and accelerating late were outdated. AB de Villiers scored the fastest ODI century in history off just 31 balls in 2015, and he’d learned to play that way in the IPL.
Young batters now grow up watching T20. They practice hitting sixes before they learn how to leave a ball outside off stump.
The Impact of T20 Cricket on Bowling
In the T20 era, bowlers have to adapt or die. The stock delivery quickly became easy fodder for batters, so spinners developed carrom balls, flippers, and wrong’uns that turned both ways. Seamers mastered the knuckle ball and the wide yorker. Death bowling became a specialist skill that franchises paid premium prices for.
Lasith Malinga was the prototype. The Sri Lankan’s round-arm action and pinpoint yorkers made him almost unplayable at the death. Jasprit Bumrah followed the same path, using an unconventional action to generate pace and movement that batters couldn’t predict.
Bowlers who relied on line and length were punished, while spinners who couldn’t vary their pace suffered the same fate. The format was brutal and unforgiving.
Franchise Cricket Takes Over
The IPL’s success led to knock off leagues everywhere. Australia launched the Big Bash, the Caribbean Premier League brought party cricket to the West Indies, and Pakistan created the PSL. England established The Hundred, though purists argued that wasn’t really T20 at all.
These leagues created a parallel economy within cricket. Players could earn more from two months of franchise cricket than from a year of international duty, and some began to prioritise leagues over their national teams. Others retired early from Test cricket to extend their T20 careers.
The West Indies have been hit hardest. A region that once produced Viv Richards and Brian Lara now struggles to field competitive Test teams because their best players are chasing T20 contracts around the world.
The Betting Connection
T20’s popularity coincided with the explosion of online gambling. The format’s fast pace makes it perfect for in-play betting, with every ball offering a new market — runs scored, wickets taken, extras conceded.
Online cricket betting sites multiplied rapidly, particularly in markets like India where cricket borders on religion. The combination of accessible streaming, mobile betting apps, and non-stop action created a massive industry. Some estimates suggest cricket now generates more betting turnover than any other sport globally.
The Dark Side of T20 Cricket
Not everyone celebrates what T20 has done to cricket. Test cricket, the format that built legends like Bradman and Tendulkar, has been squeezed into an increasingly crowded calendar. Fewer fans have the patience for a five-day contest when they can watch a complete match in three hours.
First-class cricket has suffered even more. County championship games in England often play to empty stands, and Sheffield Shield matches in Australia receive minimal coverage. This may not seem like a big deal, but fundamentally, it means the pathway that has developed cricketers for generations is being neglected.
Technique has eroded in certain areas too. Batters who grew up playing T20 sometimes struggle to build long innings, and the forward defensive stroke has become a rarity. Whenever collapses occur in Test cricket, critics are quick to point to the over-emphasis on power-hitting in the modern game.
Where to From Here
The impact of T20 cricket shows no signs of slowing down. New leagues continue to emerge, and the United States hosting T20 World Cup matches last year points towards this growth continuing.
There are signs of oversaturation, however. Players complain about workload and fans can’t follow every league. In many ways, the novelty that made T20 exciting in 2003 has become routine.
Cricket’s administrators face a genuine challenge: how to protect the traditions that gave the sport its depth while embracing the format that pays the bills. So far, they’ve mostly chosen money. For the game we love to continue sustainably, something will need to give.
