Australian nice Ricky Ponting has urged a radical change in the best way cricket is marketed in america, saying directors ought to think about dropping the phrase ‘cricket’ altogether and selling the game merely as ‘T20’.With america rising as a key a part of the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC)’s international development technique, Ponting believes the standard identify could possibly be holding the game again in a market extra aware of baseball, American soccer and basketball.The previous Australia captain feels the phrase ‘cricket’ could lead on new American audiences to instantly consider Check matches and their five-day format, somewhat than the shorter and extra entertainment-driven T20 recreation.Chatting with The Athletic, Ponting acknowledged that he’s a traditionalist who performed way more Check cricket than T20 cricket. Nonetheless, he mentioned he can be open to a whole rebranding of the format if it helped entice a brand new technology of American sports activities followers.“If I used to be bringing it right here wholly and solely to promote and promote the sport, I wouldn’t name it cricket,” Ponting begins. “It’d simply be rebranded as T20 solely. Depart the cricket factor apart. As quickly as younger individuals hear cricket in components of the world the place they’re not introduced up on the sport, they give it some thought being an extended, drawn-out, five-day recreation, and it’s not that.”Ponting additionally believes baseball may present a helpful comparability for introducing T20 to an American viewers. Fairly than specializing in the technical variations between the sports activities, he desires potential followers to grasp the high-scoring nature of the shortest cricket format.“I might evaluate it to baseball as a lot as I may and provides youngsters that probability to grasp you’re hitting 15 sixes per recreation in a recreation of T20 cricket, however you might be hitting lower than one dwelling run a recreation within the recreation of baseball.”The US has turn into one of many ICC’s largest improvement priorities, given the dimensions and industrial energy of its sports activities market. Whereas baseball, American soccer and basketball stay dominant, soccer has additionally been rising quickly within the nation.Cricket, in the meantime, has historically had a a lot smaller mainstream following within the US and has largely been performed and adopted by Asian, European and African expat communities.The ICC has been trying to broaden that viewers by a sequence of main initiatives. The nation hosted a profitable T20 World Cup in 2024, whereas Main League Cricket has been developed as a home competitors. Ponting himself is concerned within the league as coach of Washington Freedom.The ICC can also be working in the direction of cricket’s return to the Olympic stage on the Los Angeles 2028 Video games, with efforts underway to develop appropriate grounds and infrastructure within the US.With T20 on the centre of lots of these efforts, Ponting believes presenting the game as a fast-paced, fashionable product somewhat than instantly associating it with Check cricket may assist the ICC join with American audiences.
