A new player survey from the World Cricketers Association shows there has been a marked change in opinion about ICC events. For example, as recently as 2019, 85 percent of the players believed that the 50-over World Cup was the most prestigious, against 15 percent for the T20 World Cup only.
Fast forward to 2024—things are different. The percentage of players who think the ODI World Cup is the biggest, increases to 50 percent as against 35 percent for its T20 counterpart. This Saturday will see the culmination of the T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies when India takes on South Africa in the final in Barbados.
The survey findings further underline the dramatic shift in preferences amongst those under 26, 41 percent now favoring T20 World Cup over 49 percent who prefer the 50-over format in 2024. The popularity reflected in the preference of 30 percent for T20 cricket, as surveyed by players against 82 percent favouring test cricket in 2019, now slid to 48 percent.
While players from India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan were not included – as the WCA does not represent them because they do not have unions – responses were taken from players in all of the other major cricketing nations, including Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Bangladesh, and the West Indies. It has produced over 330 professional players from 13 countries, the bulk of whom are current internationals; female participation will increase significantly by 2024. Several viewership records were broken at the undergraduate edition of the T20 World Cup, notably India, where the much-anticipated India-Pakistan match received up to 256 million viewing hours.
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