The 2003 Twenty20 Cup was the inaugural
Twenty20 Cup
The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...
competition for English and Welsh county clubs. The finals day took place on 19 July at
Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also ...
, and was won by the
Surrey Lions.
Background
Following drops in attendances at
county cricket matches, the
England and Wales Cricket Board
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, ...
(ECB) first suggested playing a new reduced form of cricket in 1998. The
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...
counties and the
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...
(MCC) did not approve the idea, which was then shelved. However, attendances continued to drop, and in 2001 the ECB brought the idea up once more, and invested £200,000 in market research. This research suggested that two-thirds of the population claimed to either hate cricket, or have no interest in it, and that cricket grounds had the intimidating feel of private members' clubs. Half of the study group indicated that they would be able to tolerate a shorter match played on weekday evenings. This research was taken back to the first-class counties and the MCC, and the formation of a new, short form of cricket was approved 11–7, with the MCC abstaining.
The format, in which team batted and bowled for 20
overs with a 15-minute break between
innings, was decided upon, and the ECB then began marketing the concept with special offers and newspaper adverts.
In addition to the shorter format, the competition also included off-field entertainment, including live bands, replay screens, barbecue zones and
karaoke
Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music i ...
machines. Each of these were introduced to attract a wider range of spectators, particularly families and younger people.
Format
The 18 first-class counties were split into three regional groups of six teams, which were retained from the
Benson & Hedges Cup.
The three group-winners and the best runner-up progressed straight to Finals Day on Saturday 19 July. Each team then played each other team in the group once, the 45 group matches took place over 12 days.
On Finals Day, both semi-finals and the final were all played on the same day, with the first match starting at 10:45, and the final not due to finish until 22:00 that evening. In a break from tradition, the finals were not held at
Lord's – who had their application for a concert licence turned down by
Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...
. Instead, the event was hosted by
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...
, at their
Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also ...
ground.
Rules and regulations
All standard
laws of the game as laid down by the
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...
applied with the following significant differences:
* Each
innings should last no longer than 75 minutes.
* Teams will incur a six-run
penalty
Penalty or The Penalty may refer to:
Sports
* Penalty (golf)
* Penalty (gridiron football)
* Penalty (ice hockey)
* Penalty (rugby)
* Penalty (rugby union)
* Penalty kick (association football)
* Penalty shoot-out (association football)
A p ...
if they fail to bowl the full 20
overs within the 75 minutes.
* New batsmen must be in position within 90 seconds of a
wicket falling.
* Only two
fielders are allowed outside an inner circle during the first six overs of a team's innings.
* Bowlers are permitted a maximum of a fifth of the total overs in a completed innings (i.e. four overs if there is no delay or interruption caused by rain).
* Umpires can impose a five-run penalty for time-wasting by batsmen. They are expected to be ready as soon as the bowler is ready.
*
No-ball
In cricket, a no-ball is a type of illegal delivery to a batter (the other type being a wide). It is also a type of extra, being the run awarded to the batting team as a consequence of the illegal delivery. For most cricket games, especially ...
s will be penalised by a
free-hit next ball with standard rules on no-ball dismissals applying.
* Each side must face a minimum of five overs for a match to be valid. The
Duckworth-Lewis method will be used to calculate run targets in rain-affected games.
Media coverage
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
broadcast eight group matches and the entirety of Finals Day live.
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
broadcast one live group match, and showed highlights of the final. They also covered the event in their weekly sports programme. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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provided radio coverage of group matches via regional and local stations, and the Twenty20 final was given live coverage on
.
on 13 June 2003.
. Hampshire "came out of the blocks firing", according to
's Vic Isaacs, scoring 66 runs in the opening 7 overs.
A steady fall of wickets thereafter resulted in the Hawks scoring 153 all out. Hampshire's
, Hampshire won by 5 runs. In the division's other opening-night match,
to 155, which Surrey then passed with four balls remaining to secure the win.
*''This was the first ever English domestic final to be played with coloured clothing and white balls.''
*''This was also the first ever English domestic final to be played under floodlights.''