During the end of the millennium it was concluded that the attendances for county matches were decreasing. This phenomenon had occurred 40 years earlier and hence the Gillette Cup was launched. This was the original one day competition of the domestic games. On the same lines the concept of a still brief version of the game was thought in 1998 but was dropped. In 2001 this discussion restarted and the concept of a shorter form of the game was analysed by taking four thousand 15 minute interviews that were done with a view of estimating the appetite of the layman for this game.
The target audience
The major credit of the professional concept of Twenty20 cricket is given to Stuart Robinson a former ECB marketing manager. He said that in April 2002 the vote of the First Class Forum was 11-7 favoring the concept. In the United Kingdom, cricket is linked with middle aged, middle class and white males. However research proved that excluding this group and excluding those who disliked the game there was a plethora of children, women and young men between 16 and 34. These were the actual audience who were ready to accept a brief game in early evening after work or after school.
Bulging crowd
The main intention of beginning Twenty20 cricket was to double the crowds of the B&H Cup matches which were about 1200. With such a background, on 13 July 2003 a Friday the Twenty20 Cup was introduced. Fortunately there was good weather and the crowd was enhanced to 5000. During the next year this number was increased by 1000 and due to excitement the officials were putting forth the idea of including this event in the 2012 Olympics. For a Surrey-Middlesex game at Lords there was a crowd of 27500. This number was the largest for a county game (not considering cup finals) after 1953. Gradually there was an increase in the number of matches played in the Twenty20 cups. In spite of this the attendance for these matches was on the increase and in 2006-07 more than half a million enthusiasts viewed this version of the game. Per game there was an average crowd of 7000.
Spread of Twenty20
Twenty20 cricket has been played by 12 nations so far including the Test playing countries. These are Australia, New Zealand, England, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, India, Kenya and Scotland. Australia and New Zealand were the first teams to play this version of the game on 17th February 2005. Scotland played Twenty20 cricket on 12th September 2007 and was the last team to join the above list. In domestic cricket, several countries have started Twenty20 championships. England has the Twenty20 Cup, South Africa has Pro20 Series, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have the Twenty20 Cup, Australia has KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, West Indies have Stanford 20/20 and India has the Indian Cricket League and Indian Premier League.
