Anyone who knows me well, knows my love of sport and also for the platforms of how marketing and business collide.
Today the story centres on the proposition that T20 Cricket did not kill Test cricket, but rather exposed it!
Test Cricket has traditionally asked audiences to give it five days, T20 asked for three hours.
Sometimes the smartest response is not to become more like the disruptor, but become more unmistakably yourself.
Test Cricket sold patience, technique and tradition. T20 sold speed, theatre and instant consequence, and suddenly cricket wasn’t only competing with cricket.
The competitive arena became much larger and is now competing with Netflix, Gaming, Football, Social media, within the 3 hour attention slot market!
However not all is lost and here is the interesting observation, that T20 didn’t make Test cricket irrelevant. It made Test cricket more distinctive.
The contrast sharpened both products.
→ T20 became entertainment, opening the sport to new audiences, new competitive leagues, new investment and emerging superstars of the game.
→ Test cricket became the symbol of performance endurance, a sporting history and meaning over time.
The lesson for brands here is that when disruption enters your category, do not take the easy route and automatically imitate it.
Sometimes the smartest response is not to become more like the disruptor, but become more unmistakably yourself.
T20 may have changed cricket, but its greatest contribution was reminding us what Test cricket actually stands for.
