We hear a lot about limited attention spans in the modern world. Tracing how and why we have become unable to concentrate on things in the way we used to is tricky, but the impact is clear. Across many areas of life, longer-form activities are suffering, or at least changing.
Quite how long this process has been going on is also unclear but in cricket terms we certainly saw a major change in 2003 with the creation of Twenty20 cricket. T20, as it is generally called, was “invented” by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It was intended to broaden cricket’s appeal and create a faster, more action-packed game that would translate well on television and also attract bigger crowds to grounds around the country.
Of course, cricket had already introduced a limited-overs version of the sport with the creation of One Day Internationals in 1971. So it could easily be argued that the desire for faster-paced sport and the notion of waning attention spans is actually almost 60 years old in cricket terms.
Nonetheless, since the inception of T20 cricket in 2003, we have seen T10 and even T5 competitions. More recently, in 2021, the ECB created another format, The Hundred. It is argued that the English authorities were somewhat miffed that although their inter-county T20 tournament was the world’s first, India’s IPL is very much the big hitter in terms of short-form cricket.
More generally, T20 is the most popular format of the game today. The Hundred may at some point switch to 20 overs, the 50-over game is struggling, and five- and 10-over cricket have never really been mainstream. Test cricket is still the pick of purists and many players, and it remains the pinnacle of the game, at least in England and Australia.
However, when it comes to commercial success, player earnings, and television and live audiences, T20 is the clear winner. The format has changed so much about cricket, including the aspirations of many players. There are now so many T20 franchise leagues around the globe that it is easy for big-hitting batters and effective bowlers to have lucrative careers playing this format alone.
Indian Premier League (IPL)
The Indian Premier League is easily the biggest T20 tournament in the world. A huge success, it attracts plenty of attention both in India and around the world. It is also a big hit commercially and the IPL pays players salaries that would have been unimaginable previously.
This is because it ranks among the top 15 global leagues in terms of the revenues it generates. Indeed, according to some sources, at the time of writing, it was 13th based on the most recently available information for the various competitions, across all sports, around the world.
The IPL cannot get near the colossal sums of money generated by the NFL, which led the way with total revenue of around $20bn for the 2023 season. The NBA and the MLB were next, while the English Premier League was fourth, bringing in around £7bn based on the 2024/25 campaign.
Cricket simply cannot compete with the US behemoths or with football. However, with 2023 revenue of well over £1bn, the IPL dwarfs the earnings of any other T20 franchise or indeed any other cricket contest. What makes its money-earning power even more impressive is that the IPL is condensed into just two months, features 10 teams and sees a mere 74 fixtures.
When we compare that to the 30+ teams in all three of the high-earning American sports, and the massive 1,320 games of basketball and even heftier 2,472 of baseball, the earning power of the IPL is even clearer. Indeed, when we filter the world’s most lucrative sporting leagues by revenue per match, the IPL is third, behind the NFL and Premier League.
Of course, the IPL is about far more than money and is widely regarded as the finest T20 competition in the world. India is such fertile ground for fantastic white-ball cricketers, with the IPL offering youngsters a chance to earn life-changing sums of money. With such incredible strength in depth from local players enhanced by the biggest and best names in world cricket, it could be argued that the IPL offers a standard of play that is better than the T20 World Cup.
That might be overstretching it, but the 2025 edition of the IPL included just about all of India’s best players, plus the following overseas heavyweights:
- Rashid Khan
- Sunil Narine
- Nicholas Pooran
- Heinrich Klaasen
- Pat Cummins
- Travis Head
- Jos Buttler
- Kagiso Rabada
- Mitchell Starc
- Liam Livingstone
- David Miller
- Harry Brook (though he withdrew)
- Devon Conway
- Glen Maxwell
- Rachin Ravindra
- Quinton de Kock
- Phil Salt
- Jofra Archer
- Trent Boult
- Josh Hazlewood
- Adam Zampa
- Sam Curran
- Lockie Ferguson
The IPL sees 10 city-based teams compete, typically for around two months spanning March, April and May. Play-offs follow a league phase, with the top four teams competing via a weighted system which favours the top two.
Chennai Super Kings have been the best team in the IPL over the years. They have won five times, the same number as the Mumbai Indians. However, they have made a further five finals and overall have made the play-offs in 12 of the 16 seasons they have been a part of.
The Big Bash in Australia
The Big Bash is the typically Aussie name for the second-largest T20 franchise competition in the world. Financially, it is the 49th highest-earning league in world sport, with revenues similar to English football’s League Two. Its first season began in 2011, with Sydney Sixers beating Perth Scorchers in the final in January the following year.
The 2025/26 season will run from mid-December to late January, as usual, and will see a total of 44 matches, with eight sides taking part. As with the IPL, it has domestic talent at its core, though overseas players from England, NZ, Pakistan and other countries also feature.
SA20 in South Africa
The prosaically named SA20 is South Africa’s franchise league. It is one of the newer competitions around the world and was only founded in 2020. It runs alongside the Big Bash, meaning that few Australians play, while you rarely see South African players take part in the Big Bash.
Just six teams take part: Durban’s Super Giants, Joburg Super Kings, MI Cape Town, Paarl Royals, Pretoria Capitals and Sunrisers Eastern Cape. There are only 34 games, and it will be interesting to see if the competition expands in the years ahead.
Caribbean Premier League (CPL)
The CPL, or CPL20, also features just six teams and was first played in 2013. As with most of these competitions, there have been changes to the teams and format over the years, but 2025 saw 34 matches. The Trinbago Knight Riders claimed their fifth title in a season which ran from the 14th of August until the 21st of September.
Pakistan Super League (PSL)
The PSL will expand from six to eight teams for the 2026 campaign. Security issues mean that it does not quite attract the same standard of foreign stars as some other competitions, though David Warner, Kane Williamson and several English players featured in 2025. Running from April to May, it clashes with the IPL but has been growing in strength nonetheless.
Bangladesh Premier League (BPL)
The BPL was first played in 2012 and sees seven franchises take part. The competition has had some issues in recent years, with the 2024/25 season clashing with the Big Bash and SA20. Political problems have also made things difficult at times and the future of the BPL is currently unclear. Fortune Barishal won the 2025 final on 7th February, beating Chittagong Kings. Dawid Malan was on the winning side but the final featured no big overseas stars.