CRICKET’S OVERLORDS imagined this year’s T20 World Cup, currently being held in America and the West Indies, as a hello to millions of new fans. It has not quite worked out that way. Despite the little-fancied American team beating Pakistan, one of the game’s giants, in Texas on June 6th, few Americans have registered their country’s role in the showcase event of the world’s second-most popular sport. The New York Times summed it up best with its headline: “US Scores Historic Cricket Win, but Only Pakistan Notices”.
Instead of being a grand hello, this World Cup may be remembered more as a goodbye to a generation of players that have helped to make this short format of the game—which offers more fireworks than one-day matches or five-day Tests—the sport’s most popular. When the next T20 World Cup is held in 2026, it will have entered its third era. And it is likely to be very different from its present incarnation.