Women’s cricket has been surging in recent years, particularly in major markets like India, Australia, and the UK. Particularly in England and Wales, where The Hundred has generated huge crowds for women’s cricket in the shortest format of the game, it’s rightly on the rise. Now, the T20 World Cup is coming back to Britain.
The first-ever entry of the tournament took place in 2009 with the final at England’s finest cricket ground, Lord’s. England won that game by six wickets against New Zealand. Now, New Zealand enter as the reigning champions, while Australia lead as the favourites for most. It’s set to be a heated tournament, but will it take off as it should?
Building Out the Experience and Boosting Its Presence
While the tournament itself is being well-advertised, more could be done to grow its presence. Featuring stars of the tournament in other corners of entertainment is a regular approach that works well. In fact, just looking at Paddy Power Games, you can see many official and branded sports slots, including AP McCoy: Sporting Legends and Rocky.
Throw in others like The Mummy: Books of Amun Ra – based on the 1999 classic film –, and it’s clear that the casino platform is an avenue for reaching fans and raising brand awareness in sports and entertainment. Another path could have been to go down the docu-series path with a major streamer, akin to Drive to Survive on Netflix.
That show propelled Formula One to unprecedented heights for its honest, fly-on-the-wall look at the high-speed sport. Such authenticity connects fans and those intrigued by the sport. Another route could have been an interactive game to tie into the event, like a T20 fantasy sports app, letting fans build teams and compete for points.
Even with these possibilities being overlooked this time around, local broadcasters are looking to defy their usual pricing models to deliver the 2026 T20 World Cup to a much larger audience. As has been detailed by Sky Group, the broadcaster will put the opener and final on Freeview channel Sky Mix and show matches for free on its app.
The Biggest Women’s T20 Tournament Yet
There’s been a surge of interest and participation in women’s cricket at the highest level over the last few years. Many nations are identifying women’s sports and cricket as areas in need of investment and growth. Interestingly, this has led to the rise of Thailand in cricket, as Forbes reports, and the ICC is creating a new nations tournament.
Helping to spur the level of competition beyond the nations with a much longer history of cricket, the tournament held in Bangkok featured Thailand, the UAE, Scotland, Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, and the Netherlands. It comes alongside the World Cup expanding to 12 teams, and the Dutch making the cut for the first time.
Two groups of six teams will battle from 12 June to 28 June, sending four teams into the semi-finals at The Oval. Then, on 5 July, the new T20 world champions will be crowned at The Home of Cricket. It’s going to be the biggest and most competitive tournament yet, even if more could be done to amp up its profile prior.
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