Crowd 20/20 Final

[gusman]

Cricinfo has just announced that over 7500 people turned out for the final of the 20/20 tournament!!

[maehara]

ZC Media Release:

T20 tips the attendance scale
Over 7,000 pass through the gates at Harare Sports Club for the final

Harare - The recent Stanbic Bank T20 tournament must rank as the most successful domestic cricket exercise ever undertaken in Zimbabwe. The organizers estimated that about 7,500 people attended the final day last Saturday, a higher figure than for most domestic matches.

Certainly this tournament was a marketing triumph. Who would have imagined over 7,000 Zimbabweans attending a domestic cricket event? This figure is unprecedented in over a hundred years of cricket in this country, and especially in recent years, when only international matches have drawn more than a handful of spectators. Uncertain weather also may have kept many away. The final itself proved to be surprisingly one-sided, lacking the stupendous big hitting and thrilling finishes of many of the earlier matches. But the crowd appeared to be happy, and the next tournament of this kind, planned for August / September this year, should do even better.

The tournament lasted nine days and consisted of 17 matches. Midweek matches drew only small crowds, as was always likely, but it was a pity that more schools did not take up the invitation to attend.

"Schools cricket is the lifeblood of the future, and it can only be hoped that, after the success of this tournament, more of the schools will be prompted to bring parties of their pupils during the week'" said ZC Head of Media & Communications Shingai Rhuhwaya. Certainly the pupils who did attend appeared to have a great time and helped to create some atmosphere with their enthusiasm and cheering. Over the first weekend it was estimated that about six thousand people attended in total over the two days.

[Flower power]

This is big news for Zim Cricket as it means the game can be able to sustain itself in terms of finances when there is a huge following base . Corpoartes usually support sports that have a good following as they wuld reap benefits of sponsoring those sports . By having the matches televised ZC will also get revenue from TV rights sold . A competive league will get them a better rights package too . It is different from the past whemn ZC had to rely on Internationa tours for revenue .

[sloandog]

Great news for Zimbabwean Cricket. Lets hope the crowds continue to grow, and cricket inside Zimbabwe will be once again thought of in high regards.

[andy24]

well done to zimbabwe for providing such a great tournament.
lets hope next year the crowds grow even bigger.

[Flower power]

well done to zimbabwe for providing such a great tournament.
lets hope next year the crowds grow even bigger.

I hope they can organise an event like that say twice a year , surely the profile of the game will receive a boost . Interest levels in domestic cricket have risen ever since this tournerment . people that you would have never thought of following domestic cricket are talking about how the mountaineers are knitted unit , or the fighting spirit displayed by the Southern , or how Matebeleland Tuskers were a startstudded team and failed to make it .