In 1975, the Indian Cricket Board used to pay a fee of 2500 rupees to the players of Team India to play a Test match. Then came ODI cricket and in 1983 we became champions in the third World Cup. You will be surprised to know that when our players came back to India after becoming champions, BCCI did not have money to give to its players. Then Lata Mangeshkar did a show for the team and the money that came was given to the players.
Earnings increased after the 1983 World Cup, but even then the BCCI had to pay a fee of Rs 5 lakh to Doordarshan to show a match of India on TV. Barring Australia and England, almost all the cricket boards around the world had a similar situation.
Cricket is now the second most popular sport thanks to T20
The global fan base of cricket has also almost doubled in 15 years due to the spread of the T20 format across the world. Now it is the most followed sport after football. Earlier this status was enjoyed by field hockey. Cricket fans were already present in the largest number in India, but the advent of the T20 format also created a new fan base in the country. Sanjay Jagdale, former secretary of BCCI and former selector of Team India also agree to this.
T20 created new fans in the country. These are the fans who did not watch cricket before, but T20 attracted them. There are also a large number of women in this.
Now let’s know what benefit Test cricket got from T20
Sanjay Jagdale told to Dainik Bhaskar that Test cricket has also become interesting with the advent of T20 cricket. Now batsmen take more risks than before and this has had an impact on Test cricket as well. This has greatly reduced the number of draws in Tests and results in most matches.
In the next picture, you can see how many Test draws were held before the first World Cup held in 2007 and how many Test draws are taking place since then.
