Reminiscing about a revolution

The IPL may have been put on hold and attention switched towards Test cricket in England. But even with a World Test Championship final coming up next month, there is no debate about what cricket's primary format is in 2021. Two decades on from its creation, Twenty20 is the game that breathes energy, finance and direction into the sport, and the man recognised as its inventor continues to watch from afar like a proud parent.

Stuart Robertson has seen his progeny flourish and come of age in ways that few people expected. No longer the precocious new kid on the block, T20 has become a multi-billion global industry, spawning numerous franchise tournaments around the world that provide opportunities for players to ply their trade all year round.

In 2001, though, Robertson's focus was local as he looked to address an alarming decline in attendances at county cricket in England. As the 'voice of the consumer' in the ECB, he embarked on an extensive round of customer research, a first for the organisation. This then radical approach of using customer data to inform change in cricket is now being used to develop the latest disruptor, the Hundred, which is proving even more controversial than the introduction of T20.

In fact, the move towards short-form cricket in 2001 almost faltered at the first hurdle and only a narrow, 11-7 vote of county chairmen saw it go through. Coupled with concerns that players would not take it seriously, T20's eventual success was far from guaranteed.

On moving into the marketing manager role at the ECB in the late 1990s, Robertson became concerned at data showing a 17% decline in county attendances over the five years prior to 2000. While international cricket was still buoyant, the same was not true of the shires. Even tweaks to the various domestic one-day tournaments had not arrested the overall trend.

A few years earlier, the ECB had invited former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe to Lord's to talk about his creation, Cricket Max - a short-lived, multi-innings short format. Ultimately though, there was no real appetite for the innovation, despite 20-over cricket being a fixture in English league cricket for decades.

Against the backdrop of declining attendances, Robertson looked afresh to see what could be done. "I'm a fully paid-up subscriber to the myth of the loan inventor," he tells Cricbuzz. "Very few inventions have ever solely one person. In fact, I was part of a big team. But my role was to be the voice of the consumer. Rather than make decisions based on a feel, or what suited the players, or the administrators, what I managed to do was persuade [terrestrial broadcaster] Channel 4 and then the ECB to invest in consumer research to try and understand why it was that people weren't coming to the domestic game."

An in-depth research project ran throughout 2001, starting with an audit of all available data, followed by a series of 30 focus groups and a much wider 'omnibus survey' with 4,500 questionnaires taken directly into households. The ECB employed a specialist research agency to speak to children, while other focus groups engaged female, inner-city and ethnic minority audiences - all those who they felt were underrepresented among existing spectators - to understand why they were not attending.

The word that came up repeatedly was 'inaccessible'. Some people cited barriers which prevented them attending. Others had negative perceptions about the game, that it would not be welcoming and was not a sport for them. Some viewed cricket as a male-dominated environment or as an elite, expensive one where membership was a requirement.

Games were also played when people were at work or school, lasted several hours or days, were seen as 'boring' and, despite their length, sometimes ended with no result. Drawing on the insight gained from focus groups, the omnibus survey asked specifically if people would be interested in attending a game played after school or work that lasted less than three hours.

The results were striking, says Robertson: "It was the groups who were totally underrepresented in existing attendance, who were massively over-represented in their expression of interest in attending if it was played as a shorter form. That led us to have the knowledge, the confidence to then use."

For some this was a eureka moment, while for others it sparked fierce resistance. Robertson worked hard to take people with him, including presenting twice to the Professional Cricketers' Association to explain to players the scope of his research and the eventual findings and proposals.