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R Ashwin raises red flag before fourth T20 World Cup in 5 years, concerns with tournament structure: ‘No one will watch’
In a period of just over four years, the T20 Men's World Cup is set to take place for the fourth time – a fact that has concerned the Indian spinner.
2026 presents the sixth year in a row where the senior men’s teams in international cricket will congregate for a white ball ICC tournament, and the middle point of a decade-long stretch between 2021 and 2031 that the best teams in the world will be competing in either the ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup, or Champions Trophy every year – with a couple of World Test Championship finals shuffled in as well.
International cricket has made a conscious shift towards a more tournament-heavy and less bilateral-reliant landscape at the highest level. While this brings a financial boost to international cricket, it could also prove to be a setback. With every passing ICC tournament, the subsequent one feels less significant – especially considering that this is the fourth T20 World Cup since October 2021, a period of just over four years.
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To boot, an expansion of the tournament format also means that there will be more teams – good for growing the sport, but not necessarily for attracting viewership. This was a point raised by Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel, as he explained that the planned format for the 20-team World Cup in India and Sri Lanka will struggle to gather steam early on.
"No one is going to watch the ICC T20 World Cup this time. India vs USA, India vs. Namibia—these are games that will literally pull you away from the World Cup,” warned Ashwin.
‘Anticipation used to build naturally’
“World Cups used to happen once every four years. As a result, the interest is used to build. India used to play England or Sri Lanka in the first round, and that was a lot more fun," he continued. While the ODI World Cup remains in its traditional four-year cycle, and the Champions Trophy does as well, the T20 World Cup is on a rotating two-year schedule.
“Back in 1996, 1999 and 2003, when I was in school, the World Cup came once every four years. We collected World Cup cards, printed schedules and waited for it. That anticipation used to build naturally," explained Ashwin, throwing back to his youth when T20 as a format hadn’t even reached the international stage.
While the upcoming T20 World Cup can be expected to intensify as the initial group stage is narrowed down over the course of the tournament and the best teams face off in the biggest games, this only fuels the argument that there is simply too much cricket at the highest level.
For players, travel and schedule fatigue are elements about which plenty has been said, and more will be said in the near future. But does R Ashwin raise a powerful point about how viewer fatigue could prove to be the wolf in sheep’s clothing for top-level men’s cricket?
