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They say Test Cricket is in danger. They say One Day Cricket is losing its charm. They say T20 is taking over and the players aren't really happy.

Who are the consumers of sport? One kind of classification is given below:

1. People who watch
2. People who play (not at a professional level)
3. People who play (at a professional level)
4. People who leverage the game (marketers)

The first type is the largest group. The second type is a smaller group. The third type is a very very small group. The second, third and fourth groups will grow when the first group grows and becomes passionate about the sport. The first group is what marketers are really worried about.

The currency for measuring the growth of sport is 'share of time'. Growth of a sport is dependent on the time that people spend on the sport, either watching or playing or talking or writing about it. Why India has turned out to be such a crucial market is because of a billion-strong people following the sport, spending time on the sport.

However, while earlier people would spend 8 hrs watching an ODI or 30-40 hours watching a Test Match they are now spending only 3 hrs watching a T20 match. Obviously, T20 has changed the game. The worst part is, the world's premier T20 league, the IPL, runs only for few days. And international T20 matches are quite infrequent. The first group is spending lesser time on Cricket. And marketers of the game are worried.

Now, ODI and Test Matches have always been watched and followed by the first group (especially Indians) when played between countries, ie. at an international level. So if a domestic league of T20 becomes more more popular, it shakes the foundations of all organizations marketing the game.

Given all this, it wouldn't be wrong to say that the sport faces a crisis. So, how does one expand the market for Cricket? Some points which will help us see a way ahead:

• Add up the first groups of all Cricket playing nations and they won't add up to the first group present in India.
• Take cues from Football (or similarly Baseball, Basketball & American Football).
  • The popularity of the sport is less dependent on international matches. Domestic leagues dominate the sport and are followed by the respective first groups in all the countries. International socio-political situation does not have that great an impact on the running of the sport. 
  • The domestic leagues run for months together and not just for few days. This ensures that the people get a more time to mull over the events, talk about it, write about it and stay excited for a longer time in anticipation of the next matches. This means that there are more opportunities for marketers as well.
  • Even the nations where Football has developed only recently follow a similar domestic league approach.

Expanding the market for Cricket necessitates greater 'share of time' from the first group. And to achieve that greater opportunities to spend time on the sport need to be created.

Given that T20 has changed the game and captured the imagination of the most important first group for the sport, the excitement of Indian domestic leagues need to be sustained for a longer time and the leagues ought to be designed keeping that in mind. For it is India which will fund the development of sport in countries across the world.