Welcome to age of TikTok: jam-packed cricket calendar flirts with T10 format

Welcome to cricket in the age of TikTok.

Lunch time? Pah. Tea? Bleugh. T10 cricket has no time for that. 

The T10 format, says its "founder" Shaji Ul Mulk, is for the 21st century generation, which is high on smartphone use and low on everything else.

“We believe the attention span of any viewer is getting shorter and shorter ...that’s where the T10 has grown immensely, even beyond our own expectations,” Mulk said at the Southern African launch event for what he terms his product — which he conceptualised.

“Each format really has its own established place. We are basically a fourth format.”

It’s not the most original thought — something Mulk does concede as he rattles off stats and figures about crowds, viewers and money.

“It’s basically two T20 power plays,” Mulk said. “You need to be a really vivid cricket fan to even sit through a full four and half hours of a T20 match. You tend to switch off, focus your attention on something else. But in 90 minutes you will watch every minute.”

Ah, the 90 minutes? In his presentation to potential investors for the five teams that will participate in the African T10 version of Mulk’s product, Mulk outlined how he drew inspiration for the T10 format from watching a match in the Fifa Club World Cup in 2016. “I’m not a football fan, but I was glued to it, because there’s so much action in just 90 minutes and then I thought, ‘We should make cricket 90 minutes.’”

Which he did, and within a year the Abu Dhabi T10 League was born. Six years later he’s bringing his product to South Africa, with Zimbabwe set to host the inaugural "Zim-Afro T10 League" tournament next month, which will feature five teams, three of which carry the names of South African cities: Durban, Joburg and Cape Town. Unfortunately for Mulk, Cricket South Africa couldn’t make any venues available for his tournament at such short notice. 

A large portion of last week’s launch was Mulk seeking to attract investors — the franchises in Durban and Cape Town were already sold, Joburg was still up for grabs. The cost for a franchise was $10m, but after 10 years, the franchise is yours for life, though it’s actually more like $5m, says Mulk, because owners can take advantage of a central financial pool that they all pay into, to invest in players. Everything else is paid for.

The League is spreading its wings from Abu Dhabi, where it’s been played the last six years, to Southern Africa, the US, Sri Lanka and, next year, India. All the slots — comprising blocks of 10-12 days — have been guaranteed, said Mulk. 

It begs the obvious question: given how packed the cricket calendar is with the three other formats, including T20 Leagues in every major cricket country, is there really room for T10 cricket — even if a match lasts just 90 minutes? 

Before answering that Mulk, who is chairman of Mulk International, which is described as a “multinational conglomerate, with diversified interests” that include metal manufacturing and health care, reads off a series of statistics. What started in 2017 with 12.5-million TV viewers is now attracting 500-million viewers across television and social media platforms. Growth is 2,500% in six years, he says. 

It’s practical. Cricket needs to be in the Olympics and 90 minutes fits in with the time and number of countries; my opinion is that the bilaterals need to happen first.

—  Shaji Ul Mulk

In his investor presentation, Mulk explained how sponsorship evaluation grew from $32.1m in 2017, to $341.1m in 2023. 

“Are we clashing? The answer is: ‘yes’,” says Mulk. “Is there space? The answer is also ‘yes’.”

Mulk wants to use the AfroT10 League as the foundation for the format’s growth from a franchise tournament to one in which national teams will compete. He is setting a high bar — getting cricket into the Olympics. 

“It’s practical. Cricket needs to be in the Olympics and 90 minutes fits in with the time and number of countries; my opinion is that the bilaterals need to happen first. The ICC needs to push the format with the Olympic body, for that to happen, the full member boards need to adopt that. It’s a journey.” 

But it’s just one part of the journey. Also, is it taking cricket in the right direction? With three formats, the sport is already hard enough to follow and while there may be individuals and entities willing to invest in another format, the reasons for 10-over cricket’s existence are superficial. 

Cricket could, and should, easily accomplish its development and growth through the formats that already exist. What it lacks is honest leadership with foresight and courage. Never mind a T10 franchise, why not invest in Test cricket, where, besides the ‘big three’ cricket could do with some backing. Perhaps that’s too difficult — it requires an attention span that can ignore TikTok.

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