Twenty20

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.

Origins

 

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

 

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 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.

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.

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.

 

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.
    • However, in Australia's Big Bash League the Powerplay is only the first 4 overs, with the batters choosing when the same restrictions apply for 2 overs in the second half of the innings, in a period called a Powersurge.
• 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.

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 v t e
Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	India	71	18,867	266
2	England	48	12,305	256
3	Australia	45	11,460	255
4	New Zealand	63	15,994	254
5	Pakistan	58	14,454	249
6	South Africa	37	9,210	249
7	West Indies	47	11,503	245
8	Sri Lanka	47	11,006	234
9	Bangladesh	49	11,103	227
10	Afghanistan	43	9,357	218
11	Ireland	50	9,718	194
12	Zimbabwe	53	10,222	193
13	Scotland	21	3,987	190
14	Namibia	39	7,367	189
15	Netherlands	23	4,277	186
16	Nepal	39	6,803	174
17	United Arab Emirates	45	7,797	173
18	Oman	36	5,792	161
19	United States	13	1,928	148
20	Papua New Guinea	30	4,368	146
21	Hong Kong	42	5,669	135
22	Uganda	69	9,181	133
23	Canada	22	2,883	131
24	Malaysia	52	6,414	123
25	Jersey	21	2,515	120
26	Kuwait	37	4,407	119
27	Bahrain	45	5,165	115
28	Qatar	25	2,834	113
29	Bermuda	14	1,494	107
30	Kenya	47	4,978	106
31	Saudi Arabia	33	3,426	104
32	Italy	17	1,712	101
33	Spain	20	2,000	100
34	Tanzania	55	5,149	94
35	Germany	33	3,022	92
36	Nigeria	32	2,468	77
37	Singapore	33	2,507	76
38	Guernsey	16	1,212	76
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	Cambodia	22	1,471	67
44	Isle of Man	15	949	63
45	Vanuatu	20	1,196	60
46	Austria	29	1,682	58
47	Norway	15	852	57
48	Botswana	29	1,543	53
49	Finland	18	953	53
50	Switzerland	16	835	52
51	Malawi	19	933	49
52	Japan	25	1,222	49
53	Czech Republic	24	1,101	46
54	France	16	730	46
55	Sweden	18	759	42
56	Indonesia	26	1,092	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	33	1,010	31
65	Fiji	10	304	30
66	Thailand	22	620	28
67	Luxembourg	30	845	28
68	Sierra Leone	28	766	27
69	Mexico	7	188	22
70	Cyprus	8	206	26
71	Bahamas	10	241	24
72	Belize	3	66	22
73	Hungary	19	367	19
74	Panama	11	206	19
75	Bhutan	19	290	15
76	Serbia	19	214	14
77	Gibraltar	30	385	13
78	Bulgaria	30	289	10
79	Estonia	11	60	5
80	Eswatini	23	118	5
81	China	11	53	5
82	Turkey	7	26	4
83	Maldives	24	76	3
84	Lesotho	14	39	3
85	Cameroon	14	25	2
86	Myanmar	7	12	2
87	Gambia	9	11	1
88	Seychelles	7	0	0
89	Samoa	9	0	0
90	Mali	8	0	0
91	Croatia	10	0	0
92	Greece	6	0	0
References: ICC T20I rankings, As of 17 April 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 v t e
Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	Australia	34	9,982	294
2	England	35	9,875	282
3	India	43	11,252	262
4	New Zealand	32	8,163	255
5	South Africa	32	7,736	242
6	West Indies	27	6,340	235
7	Sri Lanka	34	7,773	229
8	Pakistan	33	7,279	221
9	Bangladesh	33	6,613	200
10	Ireland	32	5,783	181
11	Papua New Guinea	26	4,088	157
12	Zimbabwe	33	5,157	157
13	Thailand	39	6,064	155
14	Scotland	22	3,206	146
15	Netherlands	25	3,073	123
16	United Arab Emirates	47	5,718	122
17	Namibia	33	3,649	111
18	Uganda	48	5,263	110
19	Tanzania	34	3,468	102
20	Indonesia	20	1,955	98
21	Nepal	32	3,101	97
22	Hong Kong	41	3,691	90
23	United States	13	1,054	81
24	Malaysia	43	3,225	75
25	Kenya	39	2,903	74
26	Nigeria	38	2,676	70
27	Rwanda	42	2,874	68
28	Italy	20	1,319	66
29	Jersey	13	839	65
30	Vanuatu	23	1,627	58
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	21	632	30
40	Myanmar	13	334	26
41	Botswana	25	641	26
42	Bhutan	12	302	25
43	China	12	294	25
44	Kuwait	21	487	23
45	Samoa	21	386	18
46	Singapore	27	485	18
47	Mozambique	9	154	17
48	Malta	6	100	17
49	Romania	13	207	16
50	Japan	24	363	15
51	Guernsey	8	95	12
52	Bahrain	11	123	11
53	Cook Islands	11	108	10
54	Cameroon	12	111	9
55	Argentina	20	150	8
56	Qatar	20	126	6
57	Denmark	5	29	6
58	Austria	21	46	2
59	Cambodia	13	28	2
60	Oman	7	11	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	21	0	0
References: ICC Women's T20I Rankings, Updated on 4 April 2024

 

 

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

• List of Twenty20 cricket records
• List of Twenty20 International records
• 100-ball cricket
• The Hundred (cricket)
• T10 cricket, the 10-over format of cricket
• Major League Cricket
• International League T20
• Global T20 Canada