Former Australia captain, Ricky Ponting, suggested last week that cricket in the US should be rebranded T20.
This radical view was based on the notion that American audiences associate the word cricket with drawn out five-day Test matches. At first sight, it was a surprise to hear this from someone who played 168 Test matches, scoring 13,378 runs, and 375 One Day Internationals, scoring 13,704 runs. This places him in a bracket with the world’s finest ever batters. Add to this a win rate of 68 percent as captain in 324 international matches, including three world cups, then his is a voice to respect.
Ponting retired in November 2012 and is a self-acknowledged cricket traditionalist. As a player he experienced the first decade of T20 cricket, when it was the third string to Test and ODI cricket. He has since caught up with it as a commentator and coach. Currently, he is coach of the Washington Freedom franchise team in Major League Cricket and the Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League.
He is also an investor and ambassador with Century Cricket, which is to open a flagship technology-based experience in New York City. This involves indoor, tech-led cricket nets open 24 hours where batters can practise and track their performance, while also receiving virtual tutorials from Ponting. It was in New York that he made his suggestion during an interview with the sports journal, The Athletic.
At the same time as Ponting’s interview, 2,000 miles away in Barbados, the final stages of the Caribbean Premier League were being played out. The local team, the Barbados Tridents, had finished third in the group stages and played fourth placed Jamaica Kingsmen in an eliminator on Sept. 17. It was the first time that I had experienced cricket match atmosphere at the Kensington Oval. Raucous, deafening, incessant, were immediate descriptions of the noise. This was quickly, but temporarily, silenced, as their team slumped to 30 for five wickets in seven overs. A partnership between Quinton de Kock and Chris Green rescued the Tridents to a competitive total of 144. It proved to be anything but, as Maaz Sadaqat smashed, glided and scooped his way to an 112 in 49 deliveries, the Kingsmen winning with six overs to spare. My notes said “Maaz who?” as I had not heard of him before.
He is 21, born in Peshawar, Pakistan, a left-handed batter who can also bowl slow left arm orthodox. After joining Pakistan’s youth system, he played in the 2021 Under 19 Asia Cup and the 2022 Under 19 World Cup. Then came his senior Pakistan debut against Bangladesh in March 2026. In only his second ODI, he scored 75 from 46 balls and took three wickets for 23 in Pakistan’s victory. Sadaqat first played franchise cricket in the Pakistan Super League in 2025 for Peshawar Zalmi and then for the Hyderabad Kingsmen in 2026.
This was a new franchise as part of the PSL’s expansion. It is owned by the FKS consortium, which secured the franchise with a bid of $6.25 million per year. Fawad Sarwar is the principal figure behind the consortium and is also the owner of Kingsmen Sports and Enterprise and the Chicago Kingsmen in the USA Minor League. He was born and raised in Hyderabad and now resides in the USA, with business interests across multiple sectors. On March 31, 2026, it was announced that Sarwar would take on Jamacia’s CPL franchise under the Kingsman’s banner. The previous franchise had been the Jamaica Tallawahs, a founding CPL member in 2013, three-time CPL champions. Its owners, the Worldwide Sports Management Group, withdrew in December 2023.
They cited a lack of interest from the Jamaican government and poor sustainability. The Jamaican franchise was replaced in 2024 by the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons, under the ownership of WSMG. In July 2026, the Falcons were sold to SAMAA, a private equity family trust. Its provenance is not entirely clear, but it does represent a first venture into professional sport and, specifically, capacity building in Antigua. Having finished sixth and fourth in 2024 and 2025, the Falcons were placed second after the group stages. This meant a play-off for an automatic finals place with first placed team, Guyana Super Warriors. The Warriors have reached eight CPL finals, winning their first title in 2023. They are owned by New GPC Inc, a pharmaceutical products manufacturing and supply company owned by an Indian-origin businessman, Ranjisinghi Ramroop.
If I had not known that I was at the Kensington Oval, then I would have imagined that I was in the Providence Stadium, Georgetown. The stands were a mass of waving Guyanese flags. What followed for them was a huge let-down, as their team capitulated. At 40 for one after seven overs, there was no hint that the Warriors would be all out for 76 after 15 overs. The damage, part of which was self-inflicted, was induced by the Pakistani spinners, Sufyan Moqim and Shadab Khan, who claimed a hattrick in the ninth over. The Falcons made short shrift of the target, Rahkeem Cornwall using all of his might to propel six sixes and three fours in sixteen deliveries to guide his team to victory in five overs. Cornwall does not engage with singles or with running. However, Antigua’s captain, the ubiquitous Moeen Ali, who added yet another franchise to his long list, spoke highly of Cornwall’s cricket brain.
After Guyana’s wretched batting performance, the team needed to regroup for its match against the Jamacia Kingsmen. Once again, the Oval was festooned with Guyanese supporters, flags and instruments, drowning out any Trinidadian support which might be present. The noise was muted at 20 for two, supporters fearful after the previous batting display. Shimron Hetmyer strode to the crease, as purposeful as he had been tentative in the previous match, before unfurling a range of shots in a blistering attack. Aided by Shai Hope, he bludgeoned eight sixes in an undefeated century amidst a crescendo of noise. A total of 206 looked unassailable. Maaz Sadaqat had other ideas, striking 41 from 17 deliveries.
This set the tone for the rest of the innings, which started to falter towards the end. Rovman Powell then played a captain’s innings of 40 to steer the Kingsmen to an unlikely victory with two deliveries remaining. Hetmyer was visibly distraught, consoled marginally when Powell shared his player of the match award with him. Guyanese supporters were also stunned, along with local businesses who had hoped for late-night celebrations. When the final came, they still turned up as enthusiastically as normal. The Kingsmen were asked to bat and were undone by a disciplined bowling performance by the Falcons. Only one man — who else but Maaz Sadaqat — rode the storm. His range of shots, his inventiveness, his ability to combine deftness with brutally clean hitting is remarkable in one so young and inexperienced. He arrived in the CPL largely unknown and left as a record breaker, the first player to score a century in a CPL final. I will be looking out for him now, his ability lingering in the memory.
Apart from Sadaqat, there are other memories. Rovman Powell’s leadership for one, but the overwhelming noise of support and levels of enthusiasm for cricket was paramount. T20 cricket seems a natural fit for the West Indies. Its entertainment value is fully appreciated but, unlike other places, it is allied to an intrinsic understanding and love for the game, one able to appreciate the levels of skill on show. On that evidence, there is no need to consider rebranding cricket as T20 in the Caribbean.
