Former England player Eoin Morgan said that the shortest format of cricket ended up saving the sport from irrelevancy. According to the ex-Kolkata Knight Riders captain, in the modern age, if there was no T20 cricket and the franchise leagues, it would really get hard for the sport to make the younger generation care for Tests or ODIs.
“I think if the shortest format of the game did not exist, if IPL never happened, if no other franchise leagues in the world did not exist, I think cricket would end up dying in a ditch. The level of popularity would decline. Trying to sell a 5-day game or just a one-day game in particular, to young kids now is very very tough,” Morgan said on Sky Sports.
“Selling things to to your kids is very very difficult. But if you can have visibility on this magnificent product that exists to engage young kids in the game, that is your introduction and your pathway into going right. This is a beautiful sport that we play. You can learn so many uh valuable lessons in life through playing this sport. This is the shortest format. If you enjoy this you might also enjoy test match cricket. So at an introductory level, I’m a huge fan of it and without it, I would see a huge decline in the popularity of the sport. So I think it was an adaptation to the change in generation of young people coming through and it’s thrived. T20 cricket has changed the game forever. I don’t fall for the argument that shortest format is is is eating Test Cricket,” he added.
Have short formats like the SA20 saved the game? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/g4LOaqOBq4
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) January 11, 2026
With a lot of opinions going around that the advent of T20 cricket had taken the focus off Tests and ODIs, with the latter format almost losing its relevance except for the ODI World Cups and the Champions Trophy, Morgan’s comments state that the shortest format had in fact played a big part in saving the longer formats.
