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From Test to T20: How cricket bowled over a new generation of fans

Podcasts | 7 May 2025

Barney Tan

Professor and Senior Deputy Dean, Impact and Partnerships

Juliet Bourke

Adjunct Professor

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Former Australian cricket star and commentator Lisa Sthalekar explains how the game’s new format is shaking up the sport, attracting a whole new generation of fans

About the episode

The global cricket market is booming. It’s projected to be worth $6.1 billion this year.

And while traditional revenue streams such as broadcast rights, sponsorships, and ticket sales still drive the cricket business, it’s the shortened T20 format that’s drawing in new revenue and new fans.

Former cricket star turned commentator Lisa Sthalekar explains the lucrative business behind one of Australia’s favourite sports and what it can teach you about your company.

This episode is hosted by Dr Juliet Bourke.

Want to know more?

For the latest news and research from UNSW Business School and AGSM @ UNSW Business School, subscribe to our industry stories at BusinessThink and follow us on LinkedIn: UNSW Business School and AGSM @ UNSW Business School.

Transcript

Dr Juliet Bourke: The global cricket market is projected to be worth $6.1 billion this year, making it very big business indeed. There are lots of revenue streams that feed into the game, from broadcast rights to sponsorships, tickets in the stands, to corporate memberships.

Lisa Sthalekar: So then there's this big pot of money, and what they do is at ICC, obviously they'll need some for running of the organisation, then the rest is then split up into the governing bodies, which is the national teams.

Dr Juliet Bourke: And the game is changing too. It's not just for the purists who can watch an entire test match. Cricket's now drawing in different fans, by serving up a new limited-overs form of the game in T20, where players are miked up, fans are treated to pre-match entertainment and fireworks, and it feels more like a rock concert than watching a team in their whites.

Lisa Sthalekar: It's definitely brought in a newer market, a new audience, a younger audience. And I guess the hope that cricket had was that, they fall in love with T20 cricket or a certain player, and guess what, that player normally plays one-day cricket or test cricket. So can you follow that star into the other formats?

Dr Juliet Bourke: This is The Business Of. A podcast from UNSW Business School. I'm Dr Juliet Bourke, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Management and Governance. Former player turned commentator, Lisa Sthalekar was just eight years old when she picked up her first cricket bat.

Lisa Sthalekar: My father, being of Indian origin, he kind of introduced me to the game. He took us to the Sydney Cricket Ground when I was what eight or nine, would watch games of cricket, explain it to me. So he was the one that got me into cricket and got my interest into it.

Dr Juliet Bourke: Did you ever dig behind the scenes of how the business of clubs work? I mean, how do they support themselves financially to be able to provide the opportunity like you received?

Lisa Sthalekar: As I went into and realised Women's Club cricket existed and women's cricket existed, I was part of the Gordon Women's Club, and probably once I hit the age of 17 to 18, you started to get an idea and women's sport you tend to play, be selectors, raffle draw, can you get sponsors? You normally get shifted to a different role. So that's probably when I started to get an understanding of the cost of it, in running a community club and how reliant they are on sponsors and obviously players' fees to be able to survive. Because within cricket, the ground fees and match balls were the biggest cost, and you kind of need both of those to survive. Cricket is quite an expensive sport to take up. That's probably one of the disadvantages cricket has. The cricket balls are like $5000 to $6000 a year just in balls. That's not all the equipment that players need. Unlike football, where you just need boots and a ball. You need gloves, bats, pads, a bag, helmet, all of that, so everything just adds up.

Lisa Sthalekar: Yeah, that's a real business. So I'm wondering, then clubs are doing it through sponsorship and raffles and things like that. How does it work at a professional level?

Lisa Sthalekar: So International Cricket Council, their offices are in Dubai. They're kind of the overseers of the global game. They generate a certain amount of revenue. At the moment, there's an ICC event, which is the Champions Trophy. So the men are playing a 50 international tournament, it's called the Champions Trophy. Then they sell the rights to a period of time, maybe four to eight years, of all of the ICC events. So that includes men's, women's and underage boys and girls. And they generate a huge amount of money, majority of that comes from Indian broadcasters. Then on top of that, there'll be sponsors, so there'll be different corporate platinum, all of those type of things, like a normal event. So then there's this big pot of money, and what they do is at ICC, obviously they'll need some for running of the organisation. Then the rest is then split up into the governing bodies, which is the national teams and the national organisations. So there are 12 full members. They get a certain cut of the pie. And at the moment, BCCI has the biggest cuts, because they bring in the biggest amount of money. So they're on like almost 38%, and then you've got, I think maybe England on six, where on five, and then it goes down, and then there's another 100 and something associate countries that will then get another small, small slice of the pie. So then once the money goes into, let's say so I think cricket Australia gets maybe 5%, maybe 6%, I can't remember exactly the numbers. Then that money goes in to CA, then CA, then add on top of that, what they generate for their international summer, broadcast rights, all of that sponsors again, and then it gets split into the states. Now, the difference between probably India and Australia is that Australia has a Players Association, so they get a certain percentage of cricket revenue. So it's not total cricket revenue, because they take certain things out of that. It's another number that they come up with, and they get a good chunk of that, so that I think that over 25% and then that's how the players get paid. So then that goes to state, state then feeds it off to community cricket, then their state players, their state staff, all of that type of thing.

Dr Juliet Bourke: So the main way that players are funded is really coming top down. What percentage of funding comes from their individual sponsorship?

Lisa Sthalekar: So Pat Cummins.

Cricket Commentator: Oh there it comes. And he's got him, Pat Cummins and his first and he is pumped up

Lisa Sthalekar: He'll get paid a contract. So how contracts work here in Australia, you'll get a contract, then you'll get match fees. So if you play a certain match, you get a certain amount of money on top of that. And obviously it's different for a T20, so 20 over match, an ODI, which is a 50 over match, or a test match, which can go up to five days. Then there'll be winning bonuses, then there'll be a marketing contract. So if they do ads for KFC or any of the corporate sponsors, then they'll get topped up for that. And then there's the personal sponsors. So I mean, his list is quite long that he's an ambassador for or a friend of, so that's what he can earn as an Australian cricketer, and then on top of that, cricketers now play T20 franchise league. So I'm over here in India with the Women's Premier League, which is the Indian Women's T20 domestic competition, where overseas can play, and that's where the big money is. So last year, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins went for over $4 million for two months work. There's an auction, there's a bidding process. Teams start putting their paddles up, and you hopefully, if you're the player you want two people, two teams that want you, and that's where your numbers grow. So players can play. There are multiple franchises around the world. Once upon a time, you could only generate through the vertical, and that's through your state, county, then Australia, and then obviously, however well you do sponsors that come now, players can go across the horizontal, so you don't have to necessarily play for your country to be able to generate a decent income.

Dr Juliet Bourke: Does that create a tension for people that they might not want to play for their country anymore because they can actually earn more money overseas? Or is that a problem, because if they're playing overseas, they lose their fan base?

Lisa Sthalekar: It's well documented at the moment that for male cricketers, the cricket calendars too congested. So one thing that the ICC did, and rightly so, is countries need to try and figure out how to generate income themselves. So instead of always putting the hand out and asking for it to come top down, how can you build a good cricket ecosystem that can survive without potentially that. And so T20 cricket, because of the Indian Premier League that started 17 years ago, and that basically commercialised T20 cricket. And from there, every country is wanting to run something very similar. So we have the big bash in Australia, England. They have the 100 over in the West Indies they have the Caribbean Premier League. South Africa has the SA20, Sri Lanka has the Lankan Premier League. So there are so many of these T20 competitions going but they want prime time to maximise sponsorship, audience and all of that. So there's a little just all of how much bilateral or international series against each other versus a T20 competition. So what happened last year, South Africa started their SA20 competition, but they had already booked in, because they book in over a four-year period where their tests are, and South Africa had already booked in a test for New Zealand. So they actually sent their third-string side because they wanted their big players to play that domestic competition, because it was starting to make it exciting, which caused a lot of ruckus, but they wanted to maximise their investment, and that competition has been going really well.

Dr Juliet Bourke: Yeah, so let's talk about those competitions. And you talked about the introduction of T20, which, I think you said, started 17 years ago in India. What was the impetus for that?

Lisa Sthalekar: So, you've got test cricket which can go for five days and someone may not win, if may be a draw, then you've got a 50 over match, which is roughly six to seven hours, and then, as I guess, society has changed, everyone doesn't have the time to sit and watch a whole day of cricket or a whole day night of cricket. So T20 was the short, fast on-steroids version, three hours in and out, you get your excitement. The pitches are flat, so the batters score runs, hit sixes all the time, and you can have your entertainment and be done with it, and move on. And it hasn't taken your whole day. So the first ever T20 international match was back in 2004 it was actually a female side that played, so England women versus New Zealand. And then I think six months later, Australia played New Zealand. And I don't know if you remember, New Zealand kind of went back to the retro gear. They had the big handlebars, moustache and funny hats, and the Aussies had nicknames on the back of their shirts.

Cricket Commentator: And here they come, the New Zealand side and beige, led by Steven Fleming with the facial hair, Matthew Sinclair, styrus. Look at Hamish Marshall in the background. What an unbelievable look that is.

Lisa Sthalekar: So no one took it really seriously. It wasn't until India Premier League started, which was, I think, 2009 or 2008 after they won the first T20 World Cup. Then they started this tournament, and then all of a sudden everyone realised, Hey, this is, this is where the money's at.

Dr Juliet Bourke: And has that cannibalised its own market? I mean, I assume that the people who are watching T20 once watched the five-day test, but maybe it's a new market.

Lisa Sthalekar: Yeah, a lot of the purists, we call them that, watch the test match, don't like T20. It's not proper batting, according to them. There's no hard-fought innings, the ball isn't winning the competition a lot of the time. It's the batters that dominate in T20 cricket. So it's definitely brought in a newer market, a new audience, a younger audience. And I guess the hope that cricket had was that they fall in love with T20 cricket or a certain player, and guess what? That player normally plays one-day cricket or test cricket? So can you follow that star into the other formats? The other thing is, in Australia, there'll be a stark difference as well. So the Men's Big Bash compared to the Women's Big Bash, you'll find the Women's Big Bash brings even a younger audience, so young families will come. Sometimes we play at North Sydney oval, so where there's a hill, so you don't have to tell your five or six-year-old to sit in a seat the whole time, and they can't even see over people or whatever, they get to roam around. So even within Australia and two tournaments exactly the same, played at slightly different times, you've got a different audience coming in.

Dr Juliet Bourke: And on your point that there was always the hope that those people who are watching T20, and maybe that younger group of people would follow their favourite player and start watching the test. Has that eventuated?

Lisa Sthalekar: I think it's probably still a little bit too early to understand the audience and where they go. One thing we noticed here in Australia was we had a wonderful test series the Border-Gavaskar, Australia versus India. Lots of people were talking about it. We had Sam Konstas, a young, 20-year-old guy who came in and took on the world's number one bowler and kind of won a battle and got under Indian skin.

Cricket Commentator: He's got him again. Sam Konstas has set the cricket world a lot with a swashbuckling debut for the ages, putting India's star bowlers to the sore.

Lisa Sthalekar: Everyone rocked up, everyone turned on the TV. I was at the MCG for the Boxing Day test, and I was sitting up in the bleachers, tried to find a space, and there was literally what six teenage boys that came in, and they sat behind me, and they were like, "Oh, I can't wait until Sam Konstas bats. I hope they all lose their wickets, and I hope we get to see him." And they're like, "how good was he shot?" And I think he came into the test match like having 5,000 to 10,000 Instagram followers. By the end of the test match, I think he had a couple of 100,000 so it just shows you that a certain individual can spark the imagination of new audience, and because of that, the flow on effect happened with the Men's Big Bash. So everyone got this taste and this appetite for cricket and good cricket, the way that cricket will keep succeeding is that there's jeopardy, that there's context, so fans understand why they're playing it and that it's highly competitive.

Dr Juliet Bourke: Personal brands are becoming more and more impactful on the overall image of the company a person works for. Like Lisa said, it's no longer just marketing the game, it's marketing the star power of an individual. Barney Tan, the Senior Deputy Dean for Impact and Partnerships at the UNSW Business School, says that's true even outside of cricket.

Barney Tan: Brand ambassadors, whether they are high-profile athletes, influencers or even regular employees, with a strong personal brand, they can play a crucial role in humanising and enhancing a company's image. They help to build trust and authenticity by sharing personal narratives that resonate with consumers. When someone with a recognisable face or reputation speaks about a brand, it can significantly boost credibility and foster a deeper emotional connection with the audience. Essentially, brand ambassadors transform corporate messaging into authentic relatable stories, which in turn drive customer loyalty and engagement. There are primarily two types of brand ambassadors. So first we have the traditional, paid external brand ambassadors. These are often celebrities or influencers who are contracted by the company to endorse their products. They're usually compensated for their association with the company, and they have a wide, reaching public profile. Now, on the other hand, there are employee brand ambassadors. Now, these are individuals within the company hired by the company, whose personal brand and reputation can help to humanise the business. So unlike the external stars, employee brand ambassadors typically emerge organically because they're part of the organisation, they tend to have an intimate understanding of the company's culture, values and operations. One notable Australian example is Qantas. They have actually been quite effective at using their employees to tell their brand story. So for example, they empower flight attendants, pilots and ground staff, to share their day-to-day experience on social media, giving customers an authentic look behind the scenes of what they do. This means that when a flight attendant shares a story about a particularly memorable customer interaction, or pilot posts about the challenges of flying in adverse weather, these personal narratives reinforce Qantas commitment to service excellence and safety. So employees will have their own networks, their own personal channels, and it's all about perhaps giving them the right training in terms of what the brand message should be. I think through the integration of these authentic voices, this will not only enrich the brand narrative, but also build lasting relationship with consumers, which will be key in our fast-paced and ever-changing environment.

Dr Juliet Bourke: You mentioned earlier the different revenue streams that flow into cricket. One of them is broadcast rights for the women's game, which is still in a growth phase. What's the balance between what Cricket Australia or a coach wants to do versus what broadcasters need in order to draw audiences in?

Lisa Sthalekar: I remember there was a time when I was playing and Channel Nine was only taking our three T20 Internationals that we played during the summer. And our coach decided to rest, I was one of the senior players, or drop us down the order, so it was a completely different looking side. And I guess from Channel Nine's point of view, they're like, well, we kind of need the names that people know if we're going to try and market and get people watching women's cricket, it has to be a good product, and you need your stars to perform, and if you're batting them down the order to rotate or give other people opportunities in these televised matches, it's not a great look for them in trying to promote the sport. That's a clear example of how selection can really affect the growth of the sport men's cricket is in another realm, but women's cricket is slightly different, where I think we started to think, okay, how can we play an entertaining brand enough for people to tune in and stay locked in on the TV or via radio. And you know, how do we help create bigger personal brands so that people are aware of those individuals?

Dr Juliet Bourke: Yeah, that's exactly where I was going, because I was thinking about those people in days gone by who could sit around and watch four and five days and now we've moved to the immediacy of entertainment on TV, but radio as well. It seems to be changing the way that cricket is experienced. Where do you think that's going to go in the future?

Lisa Sthalekar: I think social media had a huge impact because you had a chance to get to know the person individually, because you weren't getting that from mainstream media. You know, there was not the ability to connect with those individual athletes. Where does all of this go? I guess it depends, what other tech genius will come up with some app to connect people together, really. But the fans are wanting more and more of the athletes, even cricket broadcasters, trying to figure out, how do we get the audience closer to the action? And even if you if you look at the old school camera angles, and then you had stump cam, and then you put a microphone in, and then you had slow-mo replays, so it's adding to the pictures all the time, instead of just the action, to be able to explain the sport, to see the emotion, to to see the fiery battle, all of those things from a broadcast, people are trying to figure out, can we take them in the dugout? Players wear mics now and we talk to them on field. So there will always be people trying to think of, how can we get the fans closer to the action, apart from being on the field themselves?

Dr Juliet Bourke: It seems like women's sport is having a bit of a moment. In Australia, the WAFL, Women's Rugby, of course, The Matildas soccer team. How have the leaders in cricket viewed the women's game?

Lisa Sthalekar: I think cricket administrators realised, that for over 100 years, they had literally discriminated women's sport and didn't give it the investment, the opportunity to really thrive. So one thing that happened initially, so I was in the Australian team. At the time I was vice captain, there were talks about having a double header, so we play before the men and then the men play after. And that was to help with broadcast, but then also to kind of have the audience and the fans. There was a lot of pushback at the time by Cricket Australia executives, because they said, "hey, our marketing plan is T20 cricket is short, sharp fun, and we don't want to kind of have two T20 games, because that's like having a 50 over game, and we don't want to put you on the actual ticket." And I guess our response was, "well, if you're going to watch a musical act there's always a warm up act, so to speak, right?" And that's always on the ticket. And guess what, people always come because they make a big event out of it. We, in the end, as players, had to go to CA board members, a few of them that we knew, to get the pressure coming from top down to the senior executives. We finally got a chance to have that double header, and it so happened to be Ellyse Perry's first T20 match where, I think she picked up four wickets, hit a straight six.

Cricket Commentator: Oh, that's a big shot. That is a big shot. The field is down there, and she runs over the rope. But Ellyse Perry still running, oh, now she's taking on to third. She makes it.

Lisa Sthalekar: We won. We scored, actually more runs than the Indian men's team scored, and we had about 25,000 in there for the second innings. People were afraid of the marketing or potentially cannibalising things, but in the end, it worked in our favour.

Dr Juliet Bourke: Can I take you to the art of commentating, because you've moved as a player now to the business of commentary. How does that work? How do you become the commentator? What does that look like? How do you get selected? Just talk us through the business of commenting.

Lisa Sthalekar: Well, I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know how to get into it. I didn't know how to do it. All I knew is that I thought it was a pretty good gig, and I wanted to be part of it. And so I had an opportunity in 2010 to commentate for five overs. And I sat next to Tony Greig and Mark Nicholas, and I was in the middle five overs went like this, and I thought, this is cool, how do I do this? There were no females involved in cricket broadcasts that I was aware of, and I was working for Cricket New South Wales at the time, so I had a pass that could get me into any part of the SCG when matches were held. So I used to hang out near the Channel Nine commentary box and try and understand the business of commentary and what everyone did. So to give you an example, what you watch on TV, there are 90-plus people in the stadium, whether it be cameramen, audio, the technology for DRS, directors, producers, commentators, VT guys, so they do all the replays. It's quite an amazing side to see, because certainly as a player, you had no idea what kind of goes on behind the scenes. How I got involved was I retired, and that next summer, Channel Nine asked me to come into the commentary box to commentate on three women's games, I started to get some opportunities in radio, in ABC Grandstand, and then 2015 I got a big break. It was the first time that females were involved in the Indian Premier Leagues, and they brought in four females, and I was lucky enough to be one of them. And from there, I just started to understand my craft and listen and learn. One thing that was quite evident as a cricketer, you were constantly being given feedback, given feedback in team huddles, told your shot selection or the way you went about certain things wasn't good enough in broadcast, no one tells you anything, so you could be horrendous at it, and no one would say anything to you, or you could be the best, and you still get no feedback. The only difference is, if you don't get another call-up, you know that you're really bad and you're stuffed up. Where it's if you keep getting asked back, you must be doing the right thing. So I had to figure out how to get better by myself. And it was literally listening to myself. Like you. you've watched a lot of cricket, you know what you'd like to hear, or maybe how it sounds and the flow of the commentary. And so then you'd listen back, and you'd go, "okay, no, that that was terrible. Oh, I sounded so flat." So yeah, there's a certain art to it, and there's a certain flow, and when you bring in certain statistics, or when you talk about funny stories, so all of that timing has to be right as well. And I'd hate to hear my first couple of commentary stints, because I think I would cringe a hell of a lot.

Dr Juliet Bourke: And where does that leave you in terms of your own career? What happens to you after you've had this wonderful you know, you talked about sort of ten years as a player, and now I assume ten years as a commentator. What do you predict for yourself going forward?

Lisa Sthalekar: Hopefully, I have a longer career than my playing career in the commentary box, which means I don't have to do the physical warm-up, so you can sit there as long as you want, as long as people are hiring you. I genuinely never feel like this is a job. I feel like this is a hobby. And I'm very blessed that I actually get paid to live out my dreams

Dr Juliet Bourke: Thanks to Lisa Sthalekar for being part of this episode. If you want more episodes about the business behind different sporting codes, we have an episode with Drew Arthurson where he discusses cultivating the high-performance culture within the Sydney Swans organisation.

Drew Arthurson: Something we focus on internally called incremental improvement. This is not splitting the atom, but we're focused on the compounding benefits of small gains each and every day. So how do I, Drew, a COO, get a little bit better each day? I'm not looking for breakout growth. I just want to make incremental improvements.

Dr Juliet Bourke: The Business Of is brought to you by the University of New South Wales Business School, produced with Deadset Studios.

To stay up-to-date with our latest podcasts as well as the latest insights and thought leadership from the Business School, subscribe to BusinessThink.

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<h1>From Test to T20: How cricket bowled over a new generation of fans</h1>

<figure><img src="?w=1320" /><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
 <h2>About the episode</h2>
The global cricket market is booming. It’s projected to be worth $6.1 billion this year.  
And while traditional revenue streams such as broadcast rights, sponsorships, and ticket sales still drive the cricket business, it’s the shortened T20 format that’s drawing in new revenue and new fans. 
Former cricket star turned commentator Lisa Sthalekar explains the lucrative business behind one of Australia’s favourite sports and what it can teach you about your company.
This episode is hosted by <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/juliet-bourke" data-new-window="true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dr Juliet Bourke</a>.
<h2>Want to know more? </h2>
For the latest news and research from UNSW Business School and AGSM @ UNSW Business School, <a href="https://www.businessthink.unsw.edu.au/subscribe" data-new-window="true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">subscribe</a> to our industry stories at <a href="https://www.businessthink.unsw.edu.au/" data-new-window="true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BusinessThink</a> and follow us on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/school/unswbusiness/mycompany/" data-new-window="true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UNSW Business School</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/school/agsm-nswbusinessschool/" data-new-window="true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AGSM @ UNSW Business School</a>.
<h2>Transcript</h2>
Dr Juliet Bourke: The global cricket market is projected to be worth $6.1 billion this year, making it very big business indeed. There are lots of revenue streams that feed into the game, from broadcast rights to sponsorships, tickets in the stands, to corporate memberships. 
Lisa Sthalekar: So then there's this big pot of money, and what they do is at ICC, obviously they'll need some for running of the organisation, then the rest is then split up into the governing bodies, which is the national teams. 
Dr Juliet Bourke: And the game is changing too. It's not just for the purists who can watch an entire test match. Cricket's now drawing in different fans, by serving up a new limited-overs form of the game in T20, where players are miked up, fans are treated to pre-match entertainment and fireworks, and it feels more like a rock concert than watching a team in their whites. 
Lisa Sthalekar: It's definitely brought in a newer market, a new audience, a younger audience. And I guess the hope that cricket had was that, they fall in love with T20 cricket or a certain player, and guess what, that player normally plays one-day cricket or test cricket. So can you follow that star into the other formats?  
Dr Juliet Bourke: This is The Business Of. A podcast from UNSW Business School. I'm Dr Juliet Bourke, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Management and Governance. Former player turned commentator, Lisa Sthalekar was just eight years old when she picked up her first cricket bat. 
Lisa Sthalekar: My father, being of Indian origin, he kind of introduced me to the game. He took us to the Sydney Cricket Ground when I was what eight or nine, would watch games of cricket, explain it to me. So he was the one that got me into cricket and got my interest into it. 
Dr Juliet Bourke: Did you ever dig behind the scenes of how the business of clubs work? I mean, how do they support themselves financially to be able to provide the opportunity like you received? 
Lisa Sthalekar: As I went into and realised Women's Club cricket existed and women's cricket existed, I was part of the Gordon Women's Club, and probably once I hit the age of 17 to 18, you started to get an idea and women's sport you tend to play, be selectors, raffle draw, can you get sponsors? You normally get shifted to a different role. So that's probably when I started to get an understanding of the cost of it, in running a community club and how reliant they are on sponsors and obviously players' fees to be able to survive. Because within cricket, the ground fees and match balls were the biggest cost, and you kind of need both of those to survive. Cricket is quite an expensive sport to take up. That's probably one of the disadvantages cricket has. The cricket balls are like $5000 to $6000 a year just in balls. That's not all the equipment that players need. Unlike football, where you just need boots and a ball. You need gloves, bats, pads, a bag, helmet, all of that, so everything just adds up.  
Lisa Sthalekar: Yeah, that's a real business. So I'm wondering, then clubs are doing it through sponsorship and raffles and things like that. How does it work at a professional level? 
Lisa Sthalekar: So International Cricket Council, their offices are in Dubai. They're kind of the overseers of the global game. They generate a certain amount of revenue. At the moment, there's an ICC event, which is the Champions Trophy. So the men are playing a 50 international tournament, it's called the Champions Trophy. Then they sell the rights to a period of time, maybe four to eight years, of all of the ICC events. So that includes men's, women's and underage boys and girls. And they generate a huge amount of money, majority of that comes from Indian broadcasters. Then on top of that, there'll be sponsors, so there'll be different corporate platinum, all of those type of things, like a normal event. So then there's this big pot of money, and what they do is at ICC, obviously they'll need some for running of the organisation. Then the rest is then split up into the governing bodies, which is the national teams and the national organisations. So there are 12 full members. They get a certain cut of the pie. And at the moment, BCCI has the biggest cuts, because they bring in the biggest amount of money. So they're on like almost 38%, and then you've got, I think maybe England on six, where on five, and then it goes down, and then there's another 100 and something associate countries that will then get another small, small slice of the pie. So then once the money goes into, let's say so I think cricket Australia gets maybe 5%, maybe 6%, I can't remember exactly the numbers. Then that money goes in to CA, then CA, then add on top of that, what they generate for their international summer, broadcast rights, all of that sponsors again, and then it gets split into the states. Now, the difference between probably India and Australia is that Australia has a Players Association, so they get a certain percentage of cricket revenue. So it's not total cricket revenue, because they take certain things out of that. It's another number that they come up with, and they get a good chunk of that, so that I think that over 25% and then that's how the players get paid. So then that goes to state, state then feeds it off to community cricket, then their state players, their state staff, all of that type of thing. 
Dr Juliet Bourke: So the main way that players are funded is really coming top down. What percentage of funding comes from their individual sponsorship? 
Lisa Sthalekar: So Pat Cummins.  
Cricket Commentator: Oh there it comes. And he's got him, Pat Cummins and his first and he is pumped up 
Lisa Sthalekar: He'll get paid a contract. So how contracts work here in Australia, you'll get a contract, then you'll get match fees. So if you play a certain match, you get a certain amount of money on top of that. And obviously it's different for a T20, so 20 over match, an ODI, which is a 50 over match, or a test match, which can go up to five days. Then there'll be winning bonuses, then there'll be a marketing contract. So if they do ads for KFC or any of the corporate sponsors, then they'll get topped up for that. And then there's the personal sponsors. So I mean, his list is quite long that he's an ambassador for or a friend of, so that's what he can earn as an Australian cricketer, and then on top of that, cricketers now play T20 franchise league. So I'm over here in India with the Women's Premier League, which is the Indian Women's T20 domestic competition, where overseas can play, and that's where the big money is. So last year, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins went for over $4 million for two months work. There's an auction, there's a bidding process. Teams start putting their paddles up, and you hopefully, if you're the player you want two people, two teams that want you, and that's where your numbers grow. So players can play. There are multiple franchises around the world. Once upon a time, you could only generate through the vertical, and that's through your state, county, then Australia, and then obviously, however well you do sponsors that come now, players can go across the horizontal, so you don't have to necessarily play for your country to be able to generate a decent income.  
Dr Juliet Bourke: Does that create a tension for people that they might not want to play for their country anymore because they can actually earn more money overseas? Or is that a problem, because if they're playing overseas, they lose their fan base?  
Lisa Sthalekar: It's well documented at the moment that for male cricketers, the cricket calendars too congested. So one thing that the ICC did, and rightly so, is countries need to try and figure out how to generate income themselves. So instead of always putting the hand out and asking for it to come top down, how can you build a good cricket ecosystem that can survive without potentially that. And so T20 cricket, because of the Indian Premier League that started 17 years ago, and that basically commercialised T20 cricket. And from there, every country is wanting to run something very similar. So we have the big bash in Australia, England. They have the 100 over in the West Indies they have the Caribbean Premier League. South Africa has the SA20, Sri Lanka has the Lankan Premier League. So there are so many of these T20 competitions going but they want prime time to maximise sponsorship, audience and all of that. So there's a little just all of how much bilateral or international series against each other versus a T20 competition. So what happened last year, South Africa started their SA20 competition, but they had already booked in, because they book in over a four-year period where their tests are, and South Africa had already booked in a test for New Zealand. So they actually sent their third-string side because they wanted their big players to play that domestic competition, because it was starting to make it exciting, which caused a lot of ruckus, but they wanted to maximise their investment, and that competition has been going really well.  
Dr Juliet Bourke: Yeah, so let's talk about those competitions. And you talked about the introduction of T20, which, I think you said, started 17 years ago in India. What was the impetus for that?  
Lisa Sthalekar: So, you've got test cricket which can go for five days and someone may not win, if may be a draw, then you've got a 50 over match, which is roughly six to seven hours, and then, as I guess, society has changed, everyone doesn't have the time to sit and watch a whole day of cricket or a whole day night of cricket. So T20 was the short, fast on-steroids version, three hours in and out, you get your excitement. The pitches are flat, so the batters score runs, hit sixes all the time, and you can have your entertainment and be done with it, and move on. And it hasn't taken your whole day. So the first ever T20 international match was back in 2004 it was actually a female side that played, so England women versus New Zealand. And then I think six months later, Australia played New Zealand. And I don't know if you remember, New Zealand kind of went back to the retro gear. They had the big handlebars, moustache and funny hats, and the Aussies had nicknames on the back of their shirts. 
Cricket Commentator: And here they come, the New Zealand side and beige, led by Steven Fleming with the facial hair, Matthew Sinclair, styrus. Look at Hamish Marshall in the background. What an unbelievable look that is. 
Lisa Sthalekar: So no one took it really seriously. It wasn't until India Premier League started, which was, I think, 2009 or 2008 after they won the first T20 World Cup. Then they started this tournament, and then all of a sudden everyone realised, Hey, this is, this is where the money's at. 
Dr Juliet Bourke: And has that cannibalised its own market? I mean, I assume that the people who are watching T20 once watched the five-day test, but maybe it's a new market.  
 
Lisa Sthalekar: Yeah, a lot of the purists, we call them that, watch the test match, don't like T20. It's not proper batting, according to them. There's no hard-fought innings, the ball isn't winning the competition a lot of the time. It's the batters that dominate in T20 cricket. So it's definitely brought in a newer market, a new audience, a younger audience. And I guess the hope that cricket had was that they fall in love with T20 cricket or a certain player, and guess what? That player normally plays one-day cricket or test cricket? So can you follow that star into the other formats? The other thing is, in Australia, there'll be a stark difference as well. So the Men's Big Bash compared to the Women's Big Bash, you'll find the Women's Big Bash brings even a younger audience, so young families will come. Sometimes we play at North Sydney oval, so where there's a hill, so you don't have to tell your five or six-year-old to sit in a seat the whole time, and they can't even see over people or whatever, they get to roam around. So even within Australia and two tournaments exactly the same, played at slightly different times, you've got a different audience coming in.  
Dr Juliet Bourke: And on your point that there was always the hope that those people who are watching T20, and maybe that younger group of people would follow their favourite player and start watching the test. Has that eventuated?  
Lisa Sthalekar: I think it's probably still a little bit too early to understand the audience and where they go. One thing we noticed here in Australia was we had a wonderful test series the Border-Gavaskar, Australia versus India. Lots of people were talking about it. We had Sam Konstas, a young, 20-year-old guy who came in and took on the world's number one bowler and kind of won a battle and got under Indian skin. 
Cricket Commentator:  He's got him again. Sam Konstas has set the cricket world a lot with a swashbuckling debut for the ages, putting India's star bowlers to the sore.  
Lisa Sthalekar: Everyone rocked up, everyone turned on the TV. I was at the MCG for the Boxing Day test, and I was sitting up in the bleachers, tried to find a space, and there was literally what six teenage boys that came in, and they sat behind me, and they were like, "Oh, I can't wait until Sam Konstas bats. I hope they all lose their wickets, and I hope we get to see him." And they're like, "how good was he shot?" And I think he came into the test match like having 5,000 to 10,000 Instagram followers. By the end of the test match, I think he had a couple of 100,000 so it just shows you that a certain individual can spark the imagination of new audience, and because of that, the flow on effect happened with the Men's Big Bash. So everyone got this taste and this appetite for cricket and good cricket, the way that cricket will keep succeeding is that there's jeopardy, that there's context, so fans understand why they're playing it and that it's highly competitive. 
Dr Juliet Bourke: Personal brands are becoming more and more impactful on the overall image of the company a person works for. Like Lisa said, it's no longer just marketing the game, it's marketing the star power of an individual. Barney Tan, the Senior Deputy Dean for Impact and Partnerships at the UNSW Business School, says that's true even outside of cricket. 
Barney Tan: Brand ambassadors, whether they are high-profile athletes, influencers or even regular employees, with a strong personal brand, they can play a crucial role in humanising and enhancing a company's image. They help to build trust and authenticity by sharing personal narratives that resonate with consumers. When someone with a recognisable face or reputation speaks about a brand, it can significantly boost credibility and foster a deeper emotional connection with the audience. Essentially, brand ambassadors transform corporate messaging into authentic relatable stories, which in turn drive customer loyalty and engagement. There are primarily two types of brand ambassadors. So first we have the traditional, paid external brand ambassadors. These are often celebrities or influencers who are contracted by the company to endorse their products. They're usually compensated for their association with the company, and they have a wide, reaching public profile. Now, on the other hand, there are employee brand ambassadors. Now, these are individuals within the company hired by the company, whose personal brand and reputation can help to humanise the business. So unlike the external stars, employee brand ambassadors typically emerge organically because they're part of the organisation, they tend to have an intimate understanding of the company's culture, values and operations. One notable Australian example is Qantas. They have actually been quite effective at using their employees to tell their brand story. So for example, they empower flight attendants, pilots and ground staff, to share their day-to-day experience on social media, giving customers an authentic look behind the scenes of what they do. This means that when a flight attendant shares a story about a particularly memorable customer interaction, or pilot posts about the challenges of flying in adverse weather, these personal narratives reinforce Qantas commitment to service excellence and safety. So employees will have their own networks, their own personal channels, and it's all about perhaps giving them the right training in terms of what the brand message should be. I think through the integration of these authentic voices, this will not only enrich the brand narrative, but also build lasting relationship with consumers, which will be key in our fast-paced and ever-changing environment. 
Dr Juliet Bourke: You mentioned earlier the different revenue streams that flow into cricket. One of them is broadcast rights for the women's game, which is still in a growth phase. What's the balance between what Cricket Australia or a coach wants to do versus what broadcasters need in order to draw audiences in?  
Lisa Sthalekar: I remember there was a time when I was playing and Channel Nine was only taking our three T20 Internationals that we played during the summer. And our coach decided to rest, I was one of the senior players, or drop us down the order, so it was a completely different looking side. And I guess from Channel Nine's point of view, they're like, well, we kind of need the names that people know if we're going to try and market and get people watching women's cricket, it has to be a good product, and you need your stars to perform, and if you're batting them down the order to rotate or give other people opportunities in these televised matches, it's not a great look for them in trying to promote the sport. That's a clear example of how selection can really affect the growth of the sport men's cricket is in another realm, but women's cricket is slightly different, where I think we started to think, okay, how can we play an entertaining brand enough for people to tune in and stay locked in on the TV or via radio. And you know, how do we help create bigger personal brands so that people are aware of those individuals? 
Dr Juliet Bourke: Yeah, that's exactly where I was going, because I was thinking about those people in days gone by who could sit around and watch four and five days and now we've moved to the immediacy of entertainment on TV, but radio as well. It seems to be changing the way that cricket is experienced. Where do you think that's going to go in the future?  
Lisa Sthalekar: I think social media had a huge impact because you had a chance to get to know the person individually, because you weren't getting that from mainstream media. You know, there was not the ability to connect with those individual athletes. Where does all of this go? I guess it depends, what other tech genius will come up with some app to connect people together, really. But the fans are wanting more and more of the athletes, even cricket broadcasters, trying to figure out, how do we get the audience closer to the action? And even if you if you look at the old school camera angles, and then you had stump cam, and then you put a microphone in, and then you had slow-mo replays, so it's adding to the pictures all the time, instead of just the action, to be able to explain the sport, to see the emotion, to to see the fiery battle, all of those things from a broadcast, people are trying to figure out, can we take them in the dugout? Players wear mics now and we talk to them on field. So there will always be people trying to think of, how can we get the fans closer to the action, apart from being on the field themselves? 
Dr Juliet Bourke: It seems like women's sport is having a bit of a moment. In Australia, the WAFL, Women's Rugby, of course, The Matildas soccer team. How have the leaders in cricket viewed the women's game? 
Lisa Sthalekar: I think cricket administrators realised, that for over 100 years, they had literally discriminated women's sport and didn't give it the investment, the opportunity to really thrive. So one thing that happened initially, so I was in the Australian team. At the time I was vice captain, there were talks about having a double header, so we play before the men and then the men play after. And that was to help with broadcast, but then also to kind of have the audience and the fans. There was a lot of pushback at the time by Cricket Australia executives, because they said, "hey, our marketing plan is T20 cricket is short, sharp fun, and we don't want to kind of have two T20 games, because that's like having a 50 over game, and we don't want to put you on the actual ticket." And I guess our response was, "well, if you're going to watch a musical act there's always a warm up act, so to speak, right?" And that's always on the ticket. And guess what, people always come because they make a big event out of it. We, in the end, as players, had to go to CA board members, a few of them that we knew, to get the pressure coming from top down to the senior executives. We finally got a chance to have that double header, and it so happened to be Ellyse Perry's first T20 match where, I think she picked up four wickets, hit a straight six. 
Cricket Commentator: Oh, that's a big shot. That is a big shot. The field is down there, and she runs over the rope. But Ellyse Perry still running, oh, now she's taking on to third. She makes it. 
Lisa Sthalekar: We won. We scored, actually more runs than the Indian men's team scored, and we had about 25,000 in there for the second innings. People were afraid of the marketing or potentially cannibalising things, but in the end, it worked in our favour. 
Dr Juliet Bourke: Can I take you to the art of commentating, because you've moved as a player now to the business of commentary. How does that work? How do you become the commentator? What does that look like? How do you get selected? Just talk us through the business of commenting. 
Lisa Sthalekar: Well, I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know how to get into it. I didn't know how to do it. All I knew is that I thought it was a pretty good gig, and I wanted to be part of it. And so I had an opportunity in 2010 to commentate for five overs. And I sat next to Tony Greig and Mark Nicholas, and I was in the middle five overs went like this, and I thought, this is cool, how do I do this? There were no females involved in cricket broadcasts that I was aware of, and I was working for Cricket New South Wales at the time, so I had a pass that could get me into any part of the SCG when matches were held. So I used to hang out near the Channel Nine commentary box and try and understand the business of commentary and what everyone did. So to give you an example, what you watch on TV, there are 90-plus people in the stadium, whether it be cameramen, audio, the technology for DRS, directors, producers, commentators, VT guys, so they do all the replays. It's quite an amazing side to see, because certainly as a player, you had no idea what kind of goes on behind the scenes. How I got involved was I retired, and that next summer, Channel Nine asked me to come into the commentary box to commentate on three women's games, I started to get some opportunities in radio, in ABC Grandstand, and then 2015 I got a big break. It was the first time that females were involved in the Indian Premier Leagues, and they brought in four females, and I was lucky enough to be one of them. And from there, I just started to understand my craft and listen and learn. One thing that was quite evident as a cricketer, you were constantly being given feedback, given feedback in team huddles, told your shot selection or the way you went about certain things wasn't good enough in broadcast, no one tells you anything, so you could be horrendous at it, and no one would say anything to you, or you could be the best, and you still get no feedback. The only difference is, if you don't get another call-up, you know that you're really bad and you're stuffed up. Where it's if you keep getting asked back, you must be doing the right thing. So I had to figure out how to get better by myself. And it was literally listening to myself. Like you. you've watched a lot of cricket, you know what you'd like to hear, or maybe how it sounds and the flow of the commentary. And so then you'd listen back, and you'd go, "okay, no, that that was terrible. Oh, I sounded so flat." So yeah, there's a certain art to it, and there's a certain flow, and when you bring in certain statistics, or when you talk about funny stories, so all of that timing has to be right as well. And I'd hate to hear my first couple of commentary stints, because I think I would cringe a hell of a lot.  
Dr Juliet Bourke: And where does that leave you in terms of your own career? What happens to you after you've had this wonderful you know, you talked about sort of ten years as a player, and now I assume ten years as a commentator. What do you predict for yourself going forward? 
Lisa Sthalekar: Hopefully, I have a longer career than my playing career in the commentary box, which means I don't have to do the physical warm-up, so you can sit there as long as you want, as long as people are hiring you. I genuinely never feel like this is a job. I feel like this is a hobby. And I'm very blessed that I actually get paid to live out my dreams 
Dr Juliet Bourke: Thanks to Lisa Sthalekar for being part of this episode. If you want more episodes about the business behind different sporting codes, we have an episode with Drew Arthurson where he discusses cultivating the high-performance culture within the Sydney Swans organisation.
Drew Arthurson: Something we focus on internally called incremental improvement. This is not splitting the atom, but we're focused on the compounding benefits of small gains each and every day. So how do I, Drew, a COO, get a little bit better each day? I'm not looking for breakout growth. I just want to make incremental improvements.
Dr Juliet Bourke: The Business Of is brought to you by the University of New South Wales Business School, produced with Deadset Studios. 
To stay up-to-date with our latest podcasts as well as the latest insights and thought leadership from the Business School, <a href="https://www.businessthink.unsw.edu.au/subscribe">subscribe to BusinessThink</a>.

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