How T-20 Cricket tackles American sports' brewing generation gap

In my last article we touched upon cricket’s T-20 moment.

As North American sports fans, cricket is an alien game (although keep your eye on Major League Cricket getting ready to launch).

I’m thankful to Colin Stephenson, who covers the New York Rangers for Newsday. He’s a long-time friend, former sportswriting colleague and a Jamaican international who taught me the finer points of the game, which I’ve come to appreciate.

WHAT IS THE T-20 CRICKET MOMENT

Cricket is the second-most popular sport on the planet after football/soccer.

Without too much detail into the rules, T-20 refers to the number of “overs” – similar to innings in baseball – required as the game’s time limit.

In baseball, you have nine innings defined by three outs. Each team – unless the home team wins and doesn’t play the bottom of the ninth – has 27 outs.

Cricket is similar. An “over” is like an inning, but it is defined by six “bowls” or pitches. So T-20 cricket means each team will have an opportunity to bat against 120 balls, bowls or pitches (whichever term works for you).

One team bats first and remains in that state until 120 balls are bowled. There's a break in the action and then the other team will face 120 balls. There's some strategy as to whether it's more advantageous to bat first and rack up a big score or bat second and "chase" that score. The game ends if the second team outscores the first team's total or they run out of overs.

A typical T-20 match requires about three hours to complete.

This is an enormous departure from “Test Cricket” which goes on for five days. In Test Cricket, teams can bowl 90 overs in a six-hour day – and one team could spend the entire day in the field and not bat.

In One Day International cricket (ODI), teams will each bat/bowl for 50 overs each.

T-20 CRICKET’S EXPLOSION

T-20 cricket offers a different set of strategies and tactics. For batsmen, it’s “swing away” and for bowlers the operative word is attack. This attack vs. attack mindset has created a thrilling version of the game that often goes down to the last ball(s) of the final over.

Batsmen will swing for the fences with an offensive mindset whereas Test Cricket is all about staying alive in front of the wicket. Neither bowler, nor batsman risks much in Test Cricket. It’s a game of attrition.

The India Premier League, T-20 league, launched in 2008 with uber-wealthy Indian businessmen auctioning the best players in the world in what is probably the one real-life, high-stakes fantasy sports league in existence.

As of Dec. 2022, the IPL has a value exceeding $10 billion.

WHEN YOU SEE THIS…???

When you see a slide like this on HBO’s Game Theory, you have to huddle in the league offices and brainstorm about what your T-20 Cricket moment will be.

Why?

Because Baby Boomers and Gen X are done. Millennials are apathetic/fickle consumers at best and Gen Z is the generation next in line and they have a completely different perspective.

WHAT’S OUT THERE ALREADY?

BASKETBALL – Big3 is 3-on-3 basketball. Founded by Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz, the game features former NBA players and international stars playing 3 v 3 on a half-court. Queue scoring dunks and multi-point shooting options. The final two minutes of an NBA game can last an eternity. 3 v 3 speeds up the whole process and offers creative options to players with various skillsets.

FOOTBALL -- A7FL is tackle football as it should be played – without pads or helmets. This is what we played in the field as kids…and we survived. This 7-on-7 football league is loaded with former college players and offers a wide-open, high-impact version of football on a narrower playing field.

The XFL and USFL are both trying new wrinkles and rules. Definitely worth a watch.

HOCKEY – 3ICE is a product of former 1980’s Miracle On Ice assistant coach Craig Patrick. The sport is a rolling tournament of 3x3 hockey games with former NHL players such as Bryan Trottier as coaches. The tournament finishes up over the course of a weekend and the rolls into the next town like its Monster Jam. As a person who spent a good chunk of their professional life in or around the hockey business I say: Hey, credit for thinking out of the box…but I don’t watch hockey for billions of goals and fancy passes and wide-open skating. Then again, I don’t watch the post 2005-rule-change NHL either. I'm also not Gen Z and when they see crazy goals on social media, they tend to check things out.

BASEBALL – The Savannah Bananas. These guys are the traveling circus, Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. They are packing stadia all over the country with their amazing antics and showmanship. Is this the T-20 solution for baseball? No, but it’s pretty damn successful.

Would I want to see a 7-inning version of baseball….no. There are things baseball can do that are unique, but I’m not going to mention them here and give away ideas for free. ?I’m happy MLB did away with the shift, but not so thrilled about the pitch clock…we’ll see how it works out. But this conversation is precisely why MLB had to make those changes.

LESS IS MORE

I keep saying this.

But one of the reasons football is a successful sport is because there are a limited numbers of games.

1.??????Games are once a week.

2.??????There are only 17 regular season games in the NFL.

3.??????Every win/loss is exhilarating/devastating.

4.??????Automatic narratives every week.

Can MLB, NBA, NHL survive on fewer games?

Yes.

How?

BREAK UP THE MONOTONY OF THE REGULAR SEASON

What is the value of a mundane game?

Scenario: It’s the dog days of the season. Your team is in the middle of the pack. Might be a playoff team, might not. Even if they make it, they’re probably not going to go more than a round. Tonight, your team is up against the last-place team in the other conference. And the game is on at 10:30 PM local time.

Seriously. You gonna tune-in? You gonna stream?

Maybe you watch the opening portion of the game, flip the channel, go to bed, watch the extended highlights in the morning. Comment on a few websites.

Is that monetizeable in a meaningful way for any of these leagues?

It’s not. It’s fodder. It’s a commodity. It’s going through motions of the schedule because you have to.

There are options.

There are real world examples of how to handle a long season, get your games in, create compelling TV and narratives, fill seats, drive ratings, create new sponsor options.

I have some thoughts. Again, not gonna put them out there. But they exist if you know where to look for them.

Think about it. Search for it. Make it as uncomplicated as possible.