Twenty20

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.[2]

The first official Twenty20 matches were played on 13 June 2003 between the English counties in the Twenty20 Cup.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]

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.[6]

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.[7][8]

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.[9] 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[10] against the ODI World Champions.

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.[11][12] 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,[13] but no further fixtures were held as Allen Stanford was charged with fraud in 2009.[14]

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.[15] 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[16] were sold to Star India for US$2.55 billion,[17] 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.[18]

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.[19][20] 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[21] 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.[22]

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.[23]

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.[24]

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,[25] and in 2018, announced that it will give international status to all T20 cricket matches played between its member nations.[26] This resulted in a significant leap in the number of T20I matches played across the world.[27][28]

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.[29] 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.[30]

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.[31] Matthew Hayden credited retirement from international cricket with aiding his performance in general and fitness in particular in the Indian Premier League.[32]

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.[33][25]

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.[34] 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.[35][36]

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.[37][38][39][40][41]

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."[43] This became a reality starting with the 2028 Summer Olympics. T20 cricket has also been accepted into the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.[44]

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.[45]

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

The Laws of cricket apply to Twenty20, with major exceptions:[46]

• 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.

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[47] or Super Over:[48][49] 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.[50][51] 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.[52] 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.[53]

Tied Twenty20 matches were previously decided by a bowl-out.[54]

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.[55][56]

The ICC Women's Rankings were launched in October 2015, which aggregated performance over all three forms of the game.[57] In October 2018, the ICC announced that the women's ranking would be split between ODIs and T20Is, and released both tables shortly thereafter.[58]

ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings
Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	India	59	15,589	264
2	England	43	11,133	259
3	New Zealand	53	13,534	255
4	Pakistan	50	12,719	254
5	Australia	32	7,984	250
6	South Africa	35	8,679	248
7	West Indies	39	9,463	243
8	Sri Lanka	37	8,774	237
9	Bangladesh	41	9,192	224
10	Afghanistan	29	6,260	216
11	Zimbabwe	36	7,087	197
12	Ireland	44	8,487	193
13	Namibia	17	3,228	190
14	Scotland	18	3,412	190
15	Netherlands	19	3,445	181
16	Nepal	16	2,868	179
17	United Arab Emirates	26	4,591	177
18	Papua New Guinea	22	3,173	144
19	Canada	13	1,871	144
20	Oman	19	2,723	143
21	Hong Kong	19	2,530	133
22	United States	9	1,183	131
23	Uganda	54	7,043	130
24	Jersey	19	2,427	128
25	Malaysia	36	4,537	126
26	Qatar	13	1,568	121
27	Kuwait	20	2,388	119
28	Bahrain	32	3,518	110
29	Kenya	30	3,137	105
30	Italy	17	1,712	101
31	Tanzania	43	4,286	100
32	Bermuda	9	862	96
33	Spain	18	1,649	92
34	Germany	33	3,022	92
35	Saudi Arabia	15	1,313	88
36	Singapore	24	1,910	80
37	Guernsey	16	1,212	76
38	Cayman Islands	7	521	74
39	Portugal	16	1,167	73
40	Denmark	23	1,622	71
41	Belgium	18	1,237	69
42	Nigeria	15	1,026	68
43	Isle of Man	15	949	63
44	Austria	29	1,682	58
45	Norway	15	852	57
46	Vanuatu	15	846	56
47	Botswana	24	1,300	54
48	Finland	18	953	53
49	Switzerland	16	835	52
50	Japan	14	726	52
51	Malawi	14	682	49
52	Czech Republic	24	1,101	46
53	France	16	730	46
54	Sweden	18	759	42
55	Romania	28	1,149	41
56	Cook Islands	6	245	41
57	Indonesia	10	372	37
58	Mozambique	21	759	36
59	Sierra Leone	12	421	35
60	Malta	44	1,535	35
61	Ghana	16	516	32
62	Rwanda	50	1,531	31
63	Argentina	9	274	30
64	Fiji	10	304	30
65	Bhutan	11	325	30
66	Luxembourg	28	819	29
67	Cyprus	8	206	26
68	Philippines	11	281	26
69	Bahamas	10	241	24
70	Panama	7	160	23
71	Belize	3	66	22
72	Hungary	19	367	19
73	Serbia	18	309	17
74	Thailand	12	194	16
75	Gibraltar	25	262	10
76	Bulgaria	30	289	10
77	Lesotho	9	82	9
78	Gambia	7	50	7
79	Turkey	7	26	4
80	Maldives	8	25	3
81	Cameroon	11	0	0
82	Estonia	9	0	0
83	Eswatini	18	0	0
84	Seychelles	7	0	0
85	Samoa	9	0	0
86	Greece	6	0	0
87	Croatia	10	0	0
References: ICC T20I rankings, As of 29 September 2023
"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	24	7,119	297
2	England	27	7,619	282
3	New Zealand	22	5,805	264
4	India	37	9,618	260
5	South Africa	22	5,372	244
6	West Indies	26	6,115	235
7	Sri Lanka	31	6,988	225
8	Pakistan	27	5,920	219
9	Bangladesh	25	4,859	194
10	Ireland	25	4,464	179
11	Papua New Guinea	19	2,997	158
12	Zimbabwe	16	2,511	157
13	Thailand	34	5,326	157
14	Scotland	20	2,848	142
15	Netherlands	25	3,073	123
16	United Arab Emirates	37	4,482	121
17	Namibia	23	2,581	112
18	Uganda	39	4,230	108
19	Tanzania	19	1,985	104
20	Indonesia	16	1,648	103
21	Nepal	23	2,310	100
22	Hong Kong	33	2,809	85
23	United States	13	1,054	81
24	Kenya	33	2,457	74
25	Rwanda	30	2,213	74
26	Malaysia	34	2,369	70
27	Italy	20	1,319	66
28	Jersey	13	839	65
29	Vanuatu	18	1,101	61
30	Nigeria	26	1,569	60
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	22	592	27
43	Bhutan	9	219	24
44	Bahrain	8	164	21
45	Oman	4	81	20
46	Kuwait	14	282	20
47	Singapore	21	382	18
48	Mozambique	9	154	17
49	Malta	6	100	17
50	Romania	13	207	16
51	Japan	16	198	12
52	Guernsey	8	95	12
53	Samoa	16	164	10
54	Cameroon	12	111	9
55	Cook Islands	6	53	9
56	Denmark	5	29	6
57	Qatar	17	61	4
58	Austria	21	46	2
59	Cambodia	13	28	2
60	Norway	11	3	0
61	Fiji	16	0	3
62	Serbia	7	0	0
63	Ghana	7	0	0
64	Eswatini	9	0	0
65	Philippines	9	0	0
66	Argentina	17	0	0
References: ICC Women's T20I Rankings, Updated on 3 October 2023