War of CricketCricket in the 21st Century
Cricket's 21st century has been defined by one format: Twenty20. Since England's ECB introduced it in 2003, T20 has spawned the Indian Premier League (2007) and a worldwide network of franchise leagues, forced Test cricket to invent its own World Test Championship (from 2019) to defend its place, and brought two new nations, Afghanistan and Ireland, into the Test-playing fold in 2017.
Twenty20 arrives and reshapes the professional game
Facing falling attendances at its 50-over Benson & Hedges Cup, the England and Wales Cricket Board adopted a 20-over-a-side format proposed by former New Zealand batsman Martin Crowe, and county chairmen voted it in 11-7 in 2001. The first official Twenty20 matches were played between English counties on 13 June 2003. Built to last about three hours, closer to the length of a football match than a Test day, T20 is now recognised by the ICC as one of the three official forms of the game alongside first-class and List A cricket, and every Test-playing nation runs its own domestic T20 competition. The first ICC Men's T20 World Cup followed in South Africa in 2007.
The IPL and the franchise era
The Board of Control for Cricket in India launched the Indian Premier League on 13 September 2007; the inaugural season began in April 2008 with eight city-based franchises sold at auction. It has since grown into the sport's dominant commercial engine — in 2023 its media rights sold for US$6.4 billion over four years, valuing each match at roughly $13.4 million — and by 2026 the tournament had run nineteen seasons, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru beating Gujarat Titans in that year's final. The IPL's success prompted a wave of imitators: the Big Bash League in Australia, the Pakistan Super League, the Caribbean Premier League, South Africa's SA20 and England's own T20 competitions among them, turning franchise T20 into a year-round global circuit that now competes with international cricket for players' time.
Test cricket answers back: the World Test Championship
First proposed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd in 1996 and developed through ICC discussions from 2009, the World Test Championship finally began with the 2019 Ashes series, giving the oldest format a context and a final that it had always lacked. New Zealand beat India in the inaugural final in June 2021; Australia beat India in the second final in June 2023; and South Africa beat Australia in the third final at Lord's, making the Proteas the reigning champions.
The Hundred, and cricket's newest format
The ECB went further still in England, introducing The Hundred in 2021 (delayed a year by the Covid-19 pandemic from its original 2020 start): a 100-ball competition, played as men's and women's doubleheaders across eight city-based teams, and treated as a T20 competition for statistical purposes. It has drawn debate over its finances and its relationship with the existing county T20 Blast, but the ECB has committed to it through its broadcast deal with Sky Sports to 2028.
Twelve Test nations: Afghanistan and Ireland join
On 22 June 2017, the ICC granted full membership and Test status to both Afghanistan and Ireland simultaneously, taking the number of Test-playing nations to twelve — the first countries admitted to Test cricket since Bangladesh in 2000. Afghanistan's rapid rise, driven by a generation of players who learned the game in refugee camps in Pakistan, is one of the era's more remarkable growth stories; because of ongoing insecurity at home, the team plays its home cricket at grounds in the UAE and India rather than in Afghanistan itself.
The T20 World Cup today
The tenth Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka from 7 February to 8 March 2026 across twenty teams — including Italy, appearing for the first time — was won by India, who beat New Zealand by 96 runs in the final to become the first side to win the tournament three times and the first to win back-to-back titles. For the mechanics of how limited-overs cricket itself works, see this site's Limited Overs Cricket page.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2003 | Twenty20 introduced by the ECB in England |
| 2007 | Indian Premier League founded; first T20 World Cup, South Africa |
| 2017 | Afghanistan and Ireland granted Test status, taking the total to 12 nations |
| 2019 | World Test Championship begins, with the 2019 Ashes |
| 2021 | The Hundred launched in England |
| 2025 | South Africa beat Australia to become World Test Champions |
| 2026 | India win a third T20 World Cup title, the first team to retain it |
Where the 20th century built cricket's international structure, the 21st has been about format proliferation and money: more cricket, in shorter bursts, for bigger broadcast and franchise contracts, with the traditional international calendar increasingly squeezed between them.