May 28th, 2009 
Aman This is what one of the leading newspapers in India called this game of T20 after the first world cup played in 2007. In the inaugural edition of the ICC T20 world cup, the final was the most interesting game between India and Pakistan where game was decided only in the last over when only 5 more runs were remaining and Pakistan lost the game. In fact those who had seen the tournament still feel that the game between the two countries played a few days earlier in Durban was the most exciting one when both the teams reached a “tie” in the prescribed overs and decision was made through a “ bowl Out”. It was the first ever bowl out in the history of cricket. Now that was according to the spirit of T20: fast and furious, as it is there in the game of hockey or football.
Looking at the statistics we find that the final of the T20 world cup created history in terms of TV viewership when the TV ratings reached a record of 15.2. Such a peak is never seen in the history of Indian Television. It was brought to the television by ESPN STAR sports, the sports channel and the ICC’s broadcast partner. It provided an innovative coverage when it showed the game of cricket through different angels. Suspended cable cameras were used and new features like hum centric player profiles, measuring of the longest six during the tournament, the graphics showing live field trackings and the corridors of uncertainty to find the wide ball clarity and many other features were added to make the game more interesting and watchable. The first editon of the T20 world cup was played in South Africa. In the cities like Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, the stadiums were jampacked since the game was of shorter duration and the tickets were as cheap as of Rs 20. A successful marketing campaing was run though innovative television commercials that was primarily to target the audience from South Africa.
There were DJ booths at every venue which were accompanied by a PA announcer; dancers were there on the podiums around the boundary line to keep the spectators and players motivated. There was a character created by South Africa Cricket called Dr. Beat who interacted with the spectators. Lot of other arrangements were there like distributing hard hats, a free face painting was there offered to the supporters, to increase the attendance in the stadiums there were school kids promotions, big screens were at each venue to enjoy the replays of the game, dugouts like that of football and the event songs.
The cricket fans were watching this tournament all over the world across more than 100 countries which includes Canada, china, etc. they followed the action on the mobile phones, have listened to the audio steam, have watched the instant highlights of the games played on Yahoo powered website WWW.WORLDTWENTY20.COM that too for free. Some magical moments like six sixes hit by Yuvraj Singh against England in the over of Stuart Broad, a magical hundred by Chris Gayle in the opening game of the tournament, a hat-trick by Bret Lee against Bangladesh and a brilliant performance by Shahid Afridi that made him the Man of the Tournament. The official survey shows that the tournament was a big hit. More than 91.5 million hits were registered on the official website and a fan rating of 4.6 out of 5 was given to the tournament.
The wait is over and the tournament’s second edition is to begin from June 5th onwards. With the success of IPL and more and more countries now including one or two games of T20 in the official tours this season the tournament is for sure going to offer a lot of spine chilling entertainment. Catch the live events on the official website and the official broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports.
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