‘Don’t call it cricket’: Ricky Ponting unveils radical T20 pitch to win over US fans

Ricky Ponting (Getty Images) Australian great Ricky Ponting has suggested a radical change in the way cricket is marketed in the United States, saying administrators should consider dropping the word “cricket” altogether and promoting the sport simply as “T20”.With the United States becoming a key part of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) global growth strategy, Ponting believes the traditional name could hamper the sport in a market more familiar with baseball, American football and basketball.The former Australia captain believes the word ‘cricket’ could make the new American audience immediately think of Test matches and their five-day format, rather than the shorter and more entertaining game of T20.In an interview with The Athletic, Ponting acknowledged that he is a traditionalist who has played a lot more Test cricket than T20 cricket. However, he said he would be open to a complete rebranding of the format if it helped attract a new generation of American sports fans.“If I was bringing it here entirely and solely to sell and promote the game, I wouldn’t call it cricket,” begins Ponting. “It would just be renamed T20 only. Leave the cricket thing aside. When young people hear cricket in parts of the world where they are not brought up on the game, they think it’s a long, drawn-out, five-day game, and it’s not.”Ponting also believes that baseball could provide a useful comparison for introducing T20 to American audiences. Rather than focusing on the technical differences between the sports, he wants potential fans to understand the high-scoring nature of cricket’s shortest format.“I would compare it to baseball as much as I can and give the kids a chance to understand that in a game of T20 cricket you hit 15 sixes a game but in a game of baseball you hit less than one home run.”The United States of America has become one of the ICC’s biggest development priorities due to the size and commercial power of its sports market. While baseball, American football and basketball remain dominant, soccer is also growing rapidly in the country.Cricket, meanwhile, has traditionally had a much smaller mainstream following in the US and is largely played and watched by Asian, European and African expat communities.The ICC is attempting to expand this audience through a number of significant initiatives. The country hosted the successful T20 World Cup in 2024, while Major League Cricket was developed as a domestic competition. Ponting himself is involved in the league as the coach of the Washington Freedom.The ICC is also working to return cricket to the Olympic stage at the Los Angeles Games in 2028, while seeking to develop suitable grounds and infrastructure in the US.With T20 at the heart of many of these efforts, Ponting believes that presenting the sport as a fast-growing modern product, rather than immediately associating it with Test cricket, could help the ICC connect with American audiences.