Twenty20 Cricket History

The idea of a very limited over format of the game, such as Twenty20 cricket were first mooted way back in 1998 but it was not until 2003 when the first Twenty20 Cup was formally and officially introduced. The first final was won after Surrey Browncaps defeated Warwickshire Bears.

Australia were next to introduce the game, they staged a match at the WACA between the Victorian Bushrangers and the Western Warriors which was played in front of a sell out crowd of nearly 21,000, proving conclusively that the game could easily take off there too. The Australian Domestic twenty20 Cup these days is played under the auspices of KFC Twenty20 Big Bash. Since then, International teams started to add a Twenty20 match to their touring agenda’s, the first of these took place between Australia and New Zealand in 2005 but was played very as a fun game, with the Aussies winning easily. The first official Twenty20 in Australia was played in 2006 when the home side defeated South Africa by 100 runs.

IPL Formed

Since those early beginnings, the Twenty20 cup in England has really taken off, but the League to succeed the biggest is without doubt the Indian Premier League, which will host its third League in 2010 after two very successful years.

There appears little doubt that the Twenty20 cricket format is here to stay, with now 16 international countries having played it competitively. There are also Twenty20 Leagues set up on a domestic basis in 14 different countries, including the USA and Canada as well as the more traditional cricket playing nations.

So far there have been two Twenty20 World Cup competitions, hosted by S Africa in 2009 and England in 2009, the next one is planned for 2010 also in the West Indies where it is hoped that it will set the precedent for an annual Twenty20 World Cup.