Over the past five years, there has been a sharp rise in the percentage of people who consider the T20 World Cup to be the ICC’s most important event.
Matt Lawler
The T20 World Cup is set to overtake the 50-over World Cup as the “most important” ICC event for players around the world, according to new survey data seen by ESPNcricinfo.
The newly renamed World Cricketers’ Association (WCA, formerly FICA) regularly surveys hundreds of players around the world and over the past five years has seen a sharp increase in the proportion of people who consider the T20 World Cup to be the ICC’s most important event, especially among younger players.
In 2019, 85% of respondents named the 50-over World Cup as the most important ICC event, with 15% choosing the T20 World Cup. For 2024, just 50% chose the 50-over World Cup, 35% said the T20 World Cup and a further 15% chose the World Test Championship.
For players under the age of 26, the change is even more pronounced. In 2019, 86% of players chose the 50-over World Cup compared to 14% who chose the T20 World Cup. By 2024, just 49% of players will choose the 50-over World Cup, 41% the T20 World Cup and 10% the World Test Championship.
This trend is reflected more broadly across the game, beyond ICC events: five years ago, 82% of survey respondents chose Test cricket as their most important format, with 11% choosing T20. This year, just 48% of players chose Test cricket and 30% said T20.
The WCA said the sample size for this year’s survey was about 330 professional players from 13 countries, the majority of whom are active international players. The data is skewed by the higher proportion of female respondents in 2024, but the WCA said the trends would remain the same if only male responses were taken into account.
Players from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are not unionised and therefore not represented by the WCA, but the survey covers players from major cricketing nations including Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies.
WCA chief executive Tom Moffat, who was in New York and Barbados to meet with players during the T20 World Cup group stage, told ESPN Cricket Info: “This Men’s T20 World Cup has been a fantastic spectacle and our latest Global Player Survey data continues to highlight trends in player preferences for T20 cricket in particular.”
The WCA plans to invite players to symposiums planned for August and September, and Moffat believes they need to be involved in collective discussions if the sport is serious about solving problems. “The sport’s rapid evolution is exciting, but it also presents a leadership challenge in a sporting world that has not traditionally had a coherent discussion of many global issues outside of ICC events,” he said.
“Schedules in particular are still governed by individual deals and regional interests and if you look closely you will probably find that some countries have already filled up the majority of their dates for the next decade with bilateral international cricket.”
“It doesn’t make much sense considering domestic T20 leagues also fill up spaces in the calendar and have become the preferred option for many players and those invested in the game.”
Moffatt believes that bilateral international cricket has been significantly weakened by the board acting in its own interest and scheduling matches alongside franchise leagues.
“As an industry, we can either accept two parallel calendars and a fragmented player hiring market – meaning international cricket will no longer be best versus best – or we can work together to find a way in which both situations can co-exist with a scheduling window and a properly structured international calendar,” he said.
“Either way, players should be collectively involved in decisions about the game’s structure and laws that will affect their careers. Players are driving and invested in the success of the game, and their decisions will shape the future of the game.”
The WCA and ICC recently renegotiated the terms of player team contracts for the next four years of ICC events, including commercial and image rights. After months of negotiations, the agreement was reached just days before the T20 World Cup and the WCA is confident that the new collaborative model will benefit players from smaller nations.
Matt Roller is Assistant Editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98