Twenty20 (Redirected from Twenty20 cricket)

Lasith Malinga bowling to Shahid Afridi in the 2009 T20 World Cup Final at Lord's, London.

Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of twenty overs. Together with first-class and List A cricket, Twenty20 is one of the three current forms of cricket recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as being at the highest international or domestic level.

A typical Twenty20 game is completed in about two and a half hours, with each innings lasting around 70 minutes and an official 10-minute break between the innings. This is much shorter than previous forms of the game, and is closer to the timespan of other popular team sports. It was introduced to create a fast-paced game that would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television.

The game has succeeded in spreading around the cricket world. On most international tours there is at least one Twenty20 match and all Test-playing nations have a domestic cup competition.

History

Origins

Former England batsman Andrew Strauss batting for Middlesex against Surrey

When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB needed another one-day competition to fill its place. Cricketing authorities were looking to boost the game's popularity with the younger generation in response to dwindling crowds and reduced sponsorship. It was intended to deliver fast-paced, exciting cricket accessible to thousands of fans who were put off by the longer versions of the game. Stuart Robertson, the marketing manager of the ECB, proposed a 20-over-per-innings game, invented by New Zealand cricketer Martin Crowe, to county chairmen in 2001 and they voted 11–7 in favour of adopting the new format.

The first official Twenty20 matches were played on 13 June 2003 between the English counties in the Twenty20 Cup. The first season of Twenty20 in England was a relative success, with the Surrey Lions defeating the Warwickshire Bears by nine wickets in the final to claim the title. The first Twenty20 match held at Lord's, on 15 July 2004 between Middlesex and Surrey, attracted a crowd of 27,509, the highest attendance for any county cricket game at the ground – other than a one-day final – since 1953.

Spread worldwide

Thirteen teams from different parts of the country participated in Pakistan's inaugural competition in 2004, with the Faisalabad Wolves the first winners. On 12 January 2005 Australia's first Twenty20 game was played at the WACA Ground between the Western Warriors and the Victorian Bushrangers. It drew a sell-out crowd of 20,000, which was the first one in nearly 25 years.

Starting on 11 July 2006, 19 West Indies regional teams competed in what was named the Stanford 20/20 tournament. The event was financially backed by billionaire Allen Stanford, who gave at least US$28,000,000 in funding money. It was intended that the tournament would be an annual event. Guyana won the inaugural event, defeating Trinidad and Tobago by five wickets, securing US$1,000,000 in prize money.

On 5 January 2007 the Queensland Bulls played the New South Wales Blues at The Gabba, Brisbane. An unexpected 16,000 fans turned up on the day to buy tickets, causing Gabba staff to throw open gates and grant many fans free entry. Attendance reached 27,653. For the February 2008 Twenty20 match between Australia and India, 85,824 people attended the match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, involving the Twenty20 World Champions against the ODI World Champions.[citation needed]

The Stanford Super Series was held in October 2008 between the three teams. The respective winners of the English and Caribbean Twenty20 competitions, Middlesex and Trinidad and Tobago, and a Stanford Superstars team formed from West Indies domestic players. Trinidad and Tobago won the competition, securing US$280,000 prize money. On 1 November, the Stanford Superstars played England in what was expected to be the first of five fixtures in as many years with the winner claiming US$20,000,000 in each match. The Stanford Superstars won the first match, but no further fixtures were held as Allen Stanford was charged with fraud in 2009.

T20 leagues

Crowd during a match of the 2015 IPL season in Hyderabad, India

Several T20 leagues started after the popularity of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. The Board of Control for Cricket in India started the Indian Premier League popularly known as IPL, which is now the largest cricket league, in 2008, which utilizes the North American sports franchise system with ten teams in major Indian cities. In September 2017, the broadcasting and digital rights for the next five years (2018–2022) of the IPL were sold to Star India for US$2.55 billion, making it one of the world's most lucrative sports league per match. The IPL has seen a spike in its brand valuation to US$5.3 billion after the 10th edition, according to global valuation and corporate finance advisor Duff & Phelps.

The Big Bash League, Bangladesh Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Caribbean Premier League, and Afghanistan Premier League started thereafter, following similar formulae, and remained popular with the fans. The Women's Big Bash League was started in 2015 by Cricket Australia, while the Kia Super League was started in England and Wales in 2016. The Mzansi Super League in South Africa was started in 2018.

Several T20 leagues follow the general format of having a group stage followed by a Page playoff system among the top four teams where:

  • The first- and second-highest placed teams in the group stage face off, with the winner going to the final.
  • The third- and fourth-place teams face off, with the loser being eliminated.
  • The two teams who have not yet made it to the final after the above two matches have been played face off to fill the second berth in the final.

In the Big Bash League, there is an additional match to determine which of the fourth- or fifth-placed teams will qualify to be in the top four.

Twenty20 Internationals

The first Twenty20 International match was held on 5 August 2004 between the England and New Zealand women's teams, with New Zealand winning by nine runs.

On 17 February 2005 Australia defeated New Zealand in the first men's international Twenty20 match, played at Eden Park in Auckland. The game was played in a light-hearted manner – both sides turned out in kit similar to that worn in the 1980s, the New Zealand team's a direct copy of that worn by the Beige Brigade. Some of the players also sported moustaches or beards and hairstyles popular in the 1980s, taking part in a competition amongst themselves for "best retro look", at the request of the Beige Brigade. Australia won the game comprehensively, and as the result became obvious towards the end of the NZ innings, the players and umpires took things less seriously: Glenn McGrath jokingly replayed the Trevor Chappell underarm incident from a 1981 ODI between the two sides, and Billy Bowden showed him a mock red card (red cards are not normally used in cricket) in response.

The first Twenty20 international in England was played between England and Australia at the Rose Bowl in Hampshire on 13 June 2005, which England won by a margin of 100 runs, a record victory which lasted until 2007.

On 9 January 2006 Australia and South Africa met in the first international Twenty20 game in Australia. In a first, each player's nickname appeared on the back of his uniform, rather than his surname. The international match drew a crowd of 38,894 people at The Gabba.

On 16 February 2006 New Zealand defeated West Indies in a tie-breaking bowl-out 3–0; 126 runs were scored apiece in the game proper. The game was the last international match played by Chris Cairns.

The ICC has declared that it sees T20 as the optimal format for globalizing the game, and in 2018, announced that it will give international status to all T20 cricket matches played between its member nations. This resulted in a significant leap in the number of T20I matches played across the world.

Twenty20 World Cup

Every two years an ICC World Twenty20 tournament is to take place, except in the event of an ICC Cricket World Cup being scheduled in the same year, in which case it will be held the year before. The first tournament was in 2007 in South Africa where India defeated Pakistan in the final. Two Associate teams had played in the first tournament, selected through the 2007 ICC World Cricket League Division One, a 50-over competition. In December 2007 it was decided to hold a qualifying tournament with a 20-over format to better prepare the teams. With six participants, two would qualify for the 2009 World Twenty20 and would each receive $250,000 in prize money. The second tournament was won by Pakistan, who beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in England on 21 June 2009. The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 tournament was held in the West Indies in May 2010, where England defeated Australia by seven wickets. The 2012 ICC World Twenty20 was won by the West Indies, by defeating Sri Lanka at the finals. It was the first time in cricket history when a T20 World Cup tournament took place in an Asian country. The 2014 ICC World Twenty20 was won by Sri Lanka, by defeating India at the finals, where the tournament was held in Bangladesh. The 2016 ICC World Twenty20 was won by West Indies. In July 2020, the ICC announced that both the 2020 and 2021 editions had been postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June 2021, the ICC expanded the Twenty20 World Cup from 16 to 20 teams starting from the 2024 edition onwards.

Impact on the game

Twenty20 matches can have some exciting displays, such as when the batsmen run out to the pitch

Twenty20 cricket is claimed to have resulted in a more athletic and explosive form of cricket. Indian fitness coach Ramji Srinivasan declared in an interview with the Indian fitness website Takath.com that Twenty20 had "raised the bar" in terms of fitness levels for all players, demanding higher levels of strength, speed, agility and reaction time from all players regardless of role in the team. Matthew Hayden credited retirement from international cricket with aiding his performance in general and fitness in particular in the Indian Premier League.

Several commentators have noted that the T20 format has been embraced by many Associate members of the ICC partly because it is more financially viable to play.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, on the other hand, has criticized Twenty20 as being detrimental to Test cricket and for hampering batsmen's scoring skills and concentration. Former Australian captain Greg Chappell made similar complaints, fearing that young players would play too much T20 and not develop their batting skills fully, while former England player Alex Tudor feared the same for bowling skills.

Former West Indies captains Clive Lloyd, Michael Holding and Garfield Sobers criticised Twenty20 for its role in discouraging players from representing their test cricket national side, with many West Indies players like Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo preferring instead to play in a Twenty20 franchise elsewhere in the world and make far more money.

Under-17s and Under-19s are playing T20 games in national championships, and at the detriment of two-day games. Good state players these days are averaging 35; if you were averaging 35 when I was playing your dad would go and buy you a basketball or a footy and tell you to play that.

Ricky Ponting,

Inclusion in multi-sport events

In June 2009, speaking at the annual Cowdrey Lecture at Lord's, former Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist pushed for Twenty20 to be made an Olympic sport. "It would," he said, "be difficult to see a better, quicker or cheaper way of spreading the game throughout the world." This became a reality starting with the 2028 Summer Olympics. T20 cricket has also been accepted into the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

Match format and rules

Format

Twenty20 match format is a form of limited overs cricket in that it involves two teams, each with a single innings. The key feature is that each team bats for a maximum of 20 overs (120 legal balls). The batting team members do not arrive from and depart to traditional dressing rooms, but come and go from a bench (typically a row of chairs) visible in the playing arena, analogous to association football's technical area or a baseball dugout.

Middlesex playing against Surrey at Lord's, in front of a 28,000-strong crowd

General rules

The Laws of cricket apply to Twenty20, with major exceptions:

  • Each bowler may bowl a maximum of only one-fifth of the total overs per innings. For a full, uninterrupted match, this is four overs.
  • If a bowler delivers a no-ball by overstepping the crease, it costs one or two runs (depending on the competition) and their next delivery is designated a "free-hit". In this circumstance the batter can only be dismissed through a run out, hitting the ball twice or obstructing the field.
  • The following fielding restrictions apply:
    • No more than five fielders can be on the leg side at any time.
    • During the first six overs, a maximum of two fielders can be outside the 30-yard circle (this is known as the powerplay).
    • After the first six overs, a maximum of five fielders can be outside the fielding circle.
  • If the fielding team does not start to bowl their 20th over within 75 minutes, the batting side is credited an extra six runs for every whole over bowled after the 75-minute mark; the umpire may add more time to this if they believe the batting team is wasting time.

Tie deciders

Currently, if the match ends with the scores tied and there must be a winner, the tie is broken with a one-over-per-side Eliminator or Super Over: Each team nominates three batsmen and one bowler to play a one-over-per-side "mini-match". The team which bats second in the match bats first in the Super Over. In turn, each side bats one over bowled by the one nominated opposition bowler, with their innings over if they lose two wickets before the over is completed. The side with the higher score from their Super Over wins. If the Super Over also ends up in a tie, it is repeated until the tie is broken.

In the Australian domestic competition the Big Bash League, the Super Over is played slightly differently, with no two-wicket limit, and if the Super Over is also tied then a "countback" is used, with scores after the fifth ball for each team being used to determine the result. If it is still tied, then the countback goes to four balls, and so on. The latest Super Over to decide a match was between the Sydney Sixers and the Brisbane Heat on 25 January 2017, in the Big Bash League at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, with the Sixers winning 0/22 to 0/15 in the Super Over after tying on 164.

Tied Twenty20 matches were previously decided by a bowl-out.

International

Women's and men's Twenty20 Internationals have been played since 2004 and 2005 respectively. To date, 76 nations have played the format, including all Test-playing nations.

Nation Date of men's T20I debut Date of women's T20I debut
 Australia 17 February 2005 2 September 2005
 New Zealand 17 February 2005 5 August 2004
 England 13 June 2005 5 August 2004
 South Africa 21 October 2005 10 August 2007
 West Indies 16 February 2006 27 June 2008
 Sri Lanka 15 June 2006 12 June 2009
 Pakistan 28 August 2006 25 May 2009
 Bangladesh 28 November 2006 27 August 2012
 Zimbabwe 28 November 2006 5 January 2019
 India 1 December 2006 5 August 2006
 Kenya 1 September 2007 6 April 2019
 Scotland 12 September 2007 7 July 2018
 Netherlands 2 August 2008 27 June 2008
 Ireland 2 August 2008 27 June 2008
 Canada 2 August 2008 17 May 2019
 Bermuda 3 August 2008
 Afghanistan 2 February 2010
   Nepal 16 March 2014 12 January 2019
 Hong Kong 16 March 2014 12 January 2019
 United Arab Emirates 17 March 2014 7 July 2018
 Papua New Guinea 15 July 2015 7 July 2018
 Oman 25 July 2015 17 January 2020
 Sierra Leone 19 October 2021 20 August 2018
 Lesotho 16 October 2021 20 August 2018
 South Korea 9 October 2022 3 November 2018
 China 26 July 2023 3 November 2018
 Indonesia 9 October 2022 12 January 2019
 Myanmar 26 July 2023 12 January 2019
 Bhutan 5 December 2019 13 January 2019
 Bahrain 20 January 2019 20 March 2022
 Saudi Arabia 20 January 2019 20 March 2022
 Kuwait 20 January 2019 18 February 2019
 Maldives 20 January 2019 2 December 2019
 Qatar 21 January 2019 17 January 2020
 Rwanda 18 August 2021 26 January 2019
 United States 15 March 2019 17 May 2019
 Philippines 22 March 2019 21 December 2019
 Vanuatu 22 March 2019 6 May 2019
 Spain 29 March 2019 5 May 2022
 Malta 29 March 2019 27 August 2022
 Mexico 25 April 2019 23 August 2018
 Belize 25 April 2019 13 December 2019
 Costa Rica 25 April 2019 26 April 2019
 Panama 25 April 2019
 Japan 9 October 2022 6 May 2019
 Fiji 9 September 2022 6 May 2019
 Tanzania 2 November 2021 6 May 2019
 Belgium 11 May 2019 25 September 2021
 Germany 11 May 2019 26 June 2019
 Uganda 20 May 2019 7 July 2018
 Nigeria 20 May 2019 26 January 2019
 Ghana 20 May 2019 28 March 2022
 Namibia 20 May 2019 20 August 2018
 Botswana 20 May 2019 20 August 2018
 Italy 25 May 2019 9 August 2021
 Guernsey 31 May 2019 31 May 2019
 Jersey 31 May 2019 31 May 2019
 Norway 15 June 2019 31 July 2019
 Denmark 16 June 2019 28 May 2022
 Mali 17 November 2021 18 June 2019
 Malaysia 24 June 2019 3 June 2018
 Thailand 24 June 2019 3 June 2018
 Samoa 8 July 2019 6 May 2019
 Finland 13 July 2019
 Singapore 22 July 2019 9 August 2018
 France 5 August 2021 31 July 2019
 Cayman Islands 18 August 2019
 Austria 29 August 2019 31 July 2019
 Romania 29 August 2019 27 August 2022
 Luxembourg 29 August 2019
 Turkey 29 August 2019 29 May 2023
 Czech Republic 30 August 2019
 Argentina 3 October 2019 3 October 2019
 Brazil 3 October 2019 23 August 2018
 Chile 3 October 2019 23 August 2018
 Peru 3 October 2019 3 October 2019
 Bulgaria 14 October 2019
 Serbia 14 October 2019 10 September 2022
 Greece 15 October 2019 9 September 2022
 Portugal 25 October 2019
 Gibraltar 26 October 2019
 Malawi 6 November 2019 20 August 2018
 Mozambique 6 November 2019 20 August 2018

T20 International rankings

In November 2011, the ICC released the first Twenty20 International rankings for the men's game, based on the same system as the Test and ODI rankings. The rankings cover a two- to three-year period, with matches since the most recent 1 August weighted fully, matches in the preceding 12 months weighted two-thirds, and matches in the 12 months preceding that weighted one-third. To qualify for the rankings, teams must have played at least eight Twenty20 Internationals in the ranking period.

The ICC Women's Rankings were launched in October 2015, which aggregated performance over all three forms of the game. In October 2018, the ICC announced that the women's ranking would be split between ODIs and T20Is, and released both tables shortly thereafter.

ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings
Rank Team Matches Points Rating
1  India 68 18,041 265
2  England 48 12,305 256
3  New Zealand 55 13,988 254
4  Pakistan 53 13,325 251
5  Australia 39 9,760 250
6  South Africa 37 9,210 249
7  West Indies 44 10,800 245
8  Sri Lanka 38 8,940 235
9  Bangladesh 46 10,452 227
10  Afghanistan 34 7,443 219
11  Namibia 28 5,539 198
12  Ireland 47 9,117 194
13  Zimbabwe 50 9,576 192
14  Scotland 18 3,412 190
15  Netherlands 19 3,445 181
16    Nepal 27 4,796 178
17  United Arab Emirates 38 6,623 174
18  Oman 24 3,678 153
19  Papua New Guinea 22 3,173 144
20  Canada 18 2,528 140
21  Hong Kong 28 3,740 134
22  Uganda 65 8,602 132
23  United States 9 1,183 131
24  Jersey 19 2,427 128
25  Malaysia 41 5,132 125
26  Kuwait 28 3,360 120
27  Bahrain 36 3,972 110
28  Qatar 18 1,964 109
29  Kenya 44 4,697 107
30  Bermuda 14 1,494 107
31  Italy 17 1,712 101
32  Saudi Arabia 20 1,992 100
33  Tanzania 49 4,727 96
34  Spain 18 1,649 92
35  Germany 33 3,022 92
36  Singapore 28 2,209 79
37  Guernsey 16 1,212 76
38  Nigeria 30 2,261 75
39  Portugal 16 1,167 73
40  Cayman Islands 11 790 72
41  Denmark 23 1,622 71
42  Belgium 18 1,237 69
43  Isle of Man 15 949 63
44  Cambodia 11 690 63
45  Austria 29 1,682 58
46  Norway 15 852 57
47  Vanuatu 15 846 56
48  Botswana 29 1,543 53
49  Finland 18 953 53
50   Switzerland 16 835 52
51  Japan 15 768 51
52  Malawi 19 933 49
53  Czech Republic 24 1,101 46
54  France 16 730 46
55  Indonesia 22 993 45
56  Sweden 18 759 42
57  Philippines 17 698 41
58  Romania 28 1,149 41
59  Cook Islands 6 245 41
60  Argentina 11 424 39
61  Mozambique 24 864 36
62  Malta 44 1,535 35
63  Rwanda 70 2,255 32
64  Ghana 31 968 31
65  Fiji 10 304 30
66  Bhutan 11 325 30
67  Luxembourg 30 845 28
68  Sierra Leone 28 766 27
69  Cyprus 8 206 26
70  Bahamas 10 241 24
71  Belize 3 66 22
72  Hungary 19 367 19
73  Panama 11 206 19
74  Thailand 14 205 15
75  Serbia 19 214 14
76  Gibraltar 30 385 13
77  Bulgaria 30 289 10
78  Lesotho 9 82 9
79  Estonia 11 60 5
80  Turkey 7 26 4
81  Maldives 16 44 3
82  Cameroon 14 25 2
83  Gambia 9 11 1
84  Eswatini 18 0 0
85  Seychelles 7 0 0
86  Samoa 9 0 0
87  Mali 8 0 0
88  Croatia 10 0 0
89  Greece 6 0 0
References: ICC T20I rankings, As of 2 January 2024
"Matches" is the number of matches played in the 12–24 months since the May before last, plus half the number in the 24 months before that.
ICC Women's T20I Rankings
Rank Team Matches Points Rating
1  Australia 25 7,426 297
2  England 30 8,447 282
3  India 40 10,417 260
4  New Zealand 27 6,904 256
5  South Africa 26 6,309 243
6  West Indies 27 6,340 235
7  Sri Lanka 31 6,988 225
8  Pakistan 33 7,279 221
9  Bangladesh 30 6,040 201
10  Ireland 27 4,748 176
11  Zimbabwe 21 3,352 160
12  Papua New Guinea 19 2,997 158
13  Thailand 34 5,326 157
14  Scotland 22 3,206 146
15  Netherlands 25 3,073 123
16  United Arab Emirates 41 4,845 118
17  Namibia 31 3,574 115
18  Uganda 44 4,894 111
19  Indonesia 16 1,648 103
20  Tanzania 27 2,717 101
21    Nepal 27 2,611 97
22  Hong Kong 37 3,364 91
23  United States 13 1,054 81
24  Kenya 36 2,657 74
25  Rwanda 33 2,342 71
26  Malaysia 34 2,369 70
27  Italy 20 1,319 66
28  Jersey 13 839 65
29  Nigeria 29 1,794 62
30  Vanuatu 18 1,101 61
31  Canada 9 513 57
32  Greece 11 613 56
33  Germany 15 766 51
34  Isle of Man 11 549 50
35  Spain 6 256 43
36  France 23 973 42
37  Brazil 20 846 42
38  Sweden 16 586 37
39  Sierra Leone 15 518 35
40  China 9 256 28
41  Myanmar 10 275 28
42  Botswana 25 641 26
43  Bhutan 9 219 24
44  Singapore 24 532 22
45  Bahrain 8 164 21
46  Oman 4 81 20
47  Kuwait 14 282 20
48  Mozambique 9 154 17
49  Malta 6 100 17
50  Romania 13 207 16
51  Guernsey 8 95 12
52  Samoa 16 164 10
53  Japan 20 204 10
54  Cameroon 12 111 9
55  Cook Islands 6 53 9
56  Argentina 20 150 8
57  Denmark 5 29 6
58  Qatar 17 61 4
59  Austria 21 46 2
60  Cambodia 13 28 2
61  Norway 11 3 0
62  Eswatini 9 0 0
63  Serbia 7 0 0
64  Philippines 12 0 0
65  Ghana 7 0 0
66  Fiji 16 0 0
References: ICC Women's T20I Rankings, Updated on 29 December 2023

Domestic professional T20 leagues

The Kolkata Knight Riders taking on the Chennai Super Kings at the Eden Gardens during India's IPL 01 (2008).
The Perth Scorchers taking on the Hobart Hurricanes at the WACA Ground during Australia's BBL 01 (2011–12).

This is a list of the current Twenty20 domestic competitions in several of the leading cricket countries.

Country Domestic competitions Number of teams
Australia Big Bash League 8
Bangladesh Bangladesh Premier League 8
Canada Global T20 Canada 6
England T20 Blast 18
Hong Kong Hong Kong T20 Blitz 5
India Indian Premier League, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 10, 38
Ireland Inter-Provincial Trophy 4
Netherlands Dutch Twenty20 Cup 16
Nepal Nepal T20 League, Everest Premier League 6,6
New Zealand Super Smash 6
Pakistan Pakistan Super League, National T20 Cup, Kashmir Premier League, Pakistan Junior League 6, 6, 8, 1
Scotland Murgitroyd Twenty20, Regional Pro Series 3
South Africa Mzansi Super League, CSA Provincial T20 Cup, SA20 6, 15, 6
Sri Lanka Lanka Premier League 5
West Indies Caribbean Premier League 6
United Arab Emirates International League T20 Abu Dhabi T10 6, 7
United States Major League Cricket 6
Zimbabwe Stanbic Bank 20 Series 4

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-01-15 05:26 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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