Cricket is evolving as T20 is taking on the sport and is becoming probably the dominant format around the world. The league-based style of T20 cricket has seen its popularity continuously rising ever since the shortest version of Test cricket was introduced and the IPL capitalized on the enormous success and appeal of this format.
And as T20 cricket is gaining widespread attention, more and more analysts speak about how the sport is going down the road of the most successful and mainstream game in the world – football.
Football’s league-based style has been borrowed by cricket and the T20 leagues, with the IPL being on the top of the most followed and watched competitions, have been loved not only by fans who enthusiastically watch matches between their favorite teams and bettors who place wagers on betting sites from the list of online bookmakers in the UK, but by the cricket players as well, who have undergone a transformative experience concerning their career.
T20 leagues have changed the professional lives of players for the better and this explains why cricket is moving towards the dominance of the specific format. Players get to be paid more, they get to gain more popularity as well as easier popularity with T20, and above all, they get to move to the top quicker than ever before.
Regarding earnings, cricket players can earn more with their participation in T20 leagues compared to the earnings generated from their participation in their national teams. Although this is not the rule, in many cases – always depending on the league or the team – the players are entitled to considerably higher salaries for their league performance than their national performance.
That’s because, on the one hand, T20 leagues are making more money due to the higher viewership, higher revenues from broadcasting rights as well as higher sponsorships, and on the other hand, they are funded and financially managed by private owners, which means more money being purred into the franchises.
Players who are part of T20 leagues are, therefore more able to earn more money and in a considerably shorter time, compared to traditional Test cricket, where earnings are slowly and gradually built along with the players’ international careers. Simply put, cricket players can win more with T20 cricket than with the other format.
Being able to earn more from cricket is the number one reason why nearly half of the international cricket players have reported being “ready to live country’s central contract” for T20 contracts. A relevant survey conducted by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) produced quite shocking results, illustrating that almost 49% of international players prefer T20 leagues because the money is better. Although this survey did not include Indian players -which constitute the major part of international players’ body – the results are still overwhelming.
But earning more money is not the only reason why T20 leagues are so much wanted players. The wider reach that these leagues are providing along with the fact that T20 games are watched by younger generations and are more engaging for fans -especially when wagered at the best online bookmakers, such as 22Bet, offering betting in UK-, makes them a more attractive option for those who want to become widely popular and in a shorter period of time. Although traditional Test cricket has die-hard and committed fans, the T20 format is enjoying enormous preference by younger people from all over the world. For many cricket players, becoming popular among those fans is a passport to global reach and popularity.
And then it is also the opportunity to reach the top faster than traditional cricket would ever enable players. With T20 leagues there is a full calendar. Cricketers get to play more often and they get to play more competitively, and in this way have their cricketing skills developed more quickly and showcased more often, to a point that reaching the top becomes easier!
T20 cricket enables both the sport and the players to become more like football, whose league-based structure and global reach have taken off the popularity and the alongside benefits.
