International Cricket Council executive revealed that China has emerged as a key target for growth for cricket as the sport seeks new fans worldwide.
The ICC is eyeing to add 500 million new eyeballs and sees China’s 1.4 billion population as a potential to grab audience. It feels that China’s women’s team has made a steady progress.
“The continued success of their women’s team has provided a major boost to cricket in the country,” ICC chief executive Sanjog Gupta told AFP.
Currently, the Indian subcontinent accounts for about 90 per cent of cricket’s billions of fans.
China became a target market after hosting cricket at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou. It’s women’s team has made progress by climbing 10 places in the world ranking over the last two years. They are placed 36th in the ICC T20 rankings, while the men are ranked 92nd.
On Thursday, the women were knocked out of the Asian Games without a ball being bowled, two days before the opening ceremony.
A wet outfield due to days of rain in Nagoya, Japan, prevented any play from taking place in China’s quarter-final against Bangladesh, who went through to the semi-finals by virtue of being the higher-ranked.
China is seen as a big market that ICC eyes to broaden the sport’s fandom beyond the Indian subcontinent, England, Australia and South Africa.
Investments and a domestic system
The ICC has already spent $1.5 million in China to boost the sport in last five years. The country also has three top-level cricket grounds, including a new 1,500 seat stadium in Taicang. It is expected to host domestic and international matches and provide a training base for the national teams.
The ICC also broadcast a few Women’s T20 World Cup matches in Mandarin, and the final week of the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup generated 4.4 million video views in China.
The country’s potential growth is significant as unlike other emerging markets that rely on immigrants, China has homegrown, indigenous players.
Similarly, Indonesia, with a population of about 280 million, has also been identified as a market with growth potential. Its men’s team’s T20 ranking is 63rd, and the women’s team, 23rd.
“If even segments of the population in China and Indonesia start engaging with the sport, then they could power the next leap in the scale of cricket’s fandom,” Gupta said.
“It can play a significant role in the sport’s ambition to add 500 million fans to its global fan base, which is the ICC chair’s stated ambition,” he added.
The Olympics push
Cricket’s return to the Olympics at the 2028 Los Angeles Games could act as a massive boost. Both men’s and women’s T20 tournaments will have medals for the first time since the sport’s only previous appearance in 1900.
ICC’s push to newer markets has seen success elsewhere. Italy, a traditional non-cricketing nation, made its first ever Word Cup appearance when it qualified for the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka earlier this year
Italy offered a glimpse of the potential of another non-traditional market when it made its men’s T20 World Cup debut earlier this year. They even beat Nepal, who themselves had impressed at the global stage, and even came close to beat England.