ICC unveils cricket has over one billion fans

ISLAMABAD, Jun 27 (APP):The International Cricket Council (ICC) Wednesday unveiled that cricket has over one billion fans (in the surveyed age category of 16-69) globally, the average age of which is 34 with a demographic breakdown of 61% male and 39% female.
The research was undertaken to enable ICC and its Members to understand the growth potential of cricket, to help shape the development of the growth focused global strategy for the game, said a press release issued here.
The breakdown of cricket’s three different formats in the research showed two thirds of fans over the age of 16 years’ old that were interviewed are interested in all three international formats of the game. The importance and popularity of ICC global events was evident with 95% of fans interested or very interested, with the ICC Cricket World Cup and the ICC World T20 the most popular.
The women’s game continues to gain momentum and on the back of the game-changing ICC Women’s World Cup, two-thirds of cricket fans are interested in women’s cricket (68%) and the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup (65%) – in addition, 70% of fans want to see more live coverage of women’s cricket.
Close to 70% fans are interested in Test cricket with fans in England & Wales showing the strongest interest in this format (86%), South Africa lead the interest in ODI cricket (91%) and Pakistan in T20I cricket (98%). Globally, T20I is the most popular format with 92% interest whilst ODIs are close with 88% interest.
The research highlighted that cricket has a significant growth potential in both traditional and non-traditional markets. Fans were also asked about cricket and the Olympic Games with 87% of fans claiming they would like to see Twenty20 cricket in the Olympic Games.
ICC Chief Executive, David Richardson said it was the first global market research project ever undertaken in the sport. “There are opportunities to grow in both our traditional markets, where the focus will be on attracting more women and girls, children and families, to the game, as well as non-traditional cricket playing nations where there is clearly both interest and opportunity,” he said.