What makes ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 different?

When the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup returned after five years in 2021, it broke viewership records in several regions.  

The India-Pakistan encounter became the most-viewed T20 match in history by clocking a record reach of 167 million viewers, exceeding the previous high of the India-West Indies semi-final match from the 2016 edition of the ICC event held in India.

So are we going to witness another record breaking year?

Namibia pulled off a shock win over 2014 champions Sri Lanka on the opening day of the latest edition of ICC T20 World Cup in Australia that began on 16th October and set to run till November 13th.

On the second day, two-time winners West Indies crashed to another shocking 42-run defeat by Scotland.
 

These are indications of the more interesting things to come. The eighth edition of the global showpiece tournament features 16 teams playing 45 matches in seven Australian cities spread across four different time zones. The marquee event will expand to 20 teams in 2024.

With the completion of the qualifying phase, where eight teams battled for four vacant spots, the Super 12s started with a bang in Sydney on Sunday when the hosts met New Zealand in a rematch of last year's final.

India were dealt a huge blow with Jasprit Bumrah ruled out due to a back injury. Mohammed Shami, who has not featured in in T20Is since the last T20 World Cup, was drafted as his replacement in the squad. 

India, Australia, England, Pakistan, New Zealand, and South Africa, in that order, are the top favourites this year to lift the trophy. Pakistan have one of the strongest bowling attacks in the world.

Karan Taurani, Senior Vice-President, Elara Capital says, cricket fatigue setting in but T20 World Cup viewership not affected. Digital to get a boost as matches scheduled for Indian afternoon/evening. Overall viewership to be stable unless India underperforms 

The reigning champions, Australia will look to make the most of home conditions to defend their crown. Australia are also hosting the T20 World Cup for the first time. No host nation has ever won the T20 World Cup and no team has won back-to-back titles in the 15-year history of the world cup. But at the same time, Australia are the first to defend the title at home. 

A number of changes to Playing Conditions by ICC have come into effect on October 1. In a format of small margins, these changes may become match-defining and deciding moments in Australia.

The law related to the running out of a non-striker while they back up out of the crease, informally called ‘Mankading’ after former India cricket Vinoo Mankad, has been moved from the ‘Unfair Play’ section to the ‘Run out’ section.

With the normalisation of the practice, especially after Deepti Sharma’s run out of Charlie Dean during India’s tour of England last month, non-strikers will be on their toes. 

A change that came earlier in the year is the in-match over rate penalty. The failure of a fielding team to bowl their overs by the scheduled cessation time leads to an additional fielder having to be brought inside the fielding circle for the remaining overs of the innings.

The use of saliva to polish the ball has been permanently banned. Further, when a batsman is out caught, the new one will coming at the striker's end, regardless of whether the batsman crossed prior to the catch being taken.

A new penalty is in place for when the fielding side breaches the law on unfair movement. Any movement deemed unfair and deliberate by fielders while a bowler is running in to bowl now results in the umpire awarding five penalty runs to the batting side, in addition to the delivery being a dead ball.

This time around, India, the world’s top-ranked T20 side, will be looking for a much better showing than their group-stage elimination in 2021.

Speaking to Business Standard, Taurani of Elara Capital says, 2021 WC saw ad revenues of Rs 800-1,000 crore. Marquee events see 15-17% CAGR but growth will be muted this time. New age firms not spending aggressively, they account for 20% of ad spends. Lower TV viewership will impact overall ad revenues negatively.

Elara analyst Karan Taurani says the viewership gap for the tournament between digital and TV is just about 10%.

But because of favourable time zones and mobility restrictions going away, digital viewership could end up crossing TV’s this time. This T20 World Cup will attract an estimated TV audience of 390-400 million and digital audience of 350-400 million. However, TV will still command a higher ad revenue share but viewership growth will be substantially better for digital.

The Australian event follows a run of four T20 World Cups in Asia. As such, fast bowlers will enjoy Australia's bouncy wickets. With more teams better placed than last year, a new host country and interesting rule changes, the fight for the $1.6 million trophy will be anything but a boring affair.