A new format of cricket, Test Twenty, will make its debut at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo from November 14 to 29, bringing together boys’ and girls’ teams whose scores will combine to determine a single result. Each team will have a squad of 40 players, comprising 20 girls and 20 boys.
The inaugural tournament of “cricket’s fourth format” will feature 160 cricketers aged 13 to 21, selected from across the world and divided into four continental teams, according to a press release.
In every match, the girls’ XI will play against the girls’ XI, while the boys’ XI will face the boys’ XI. However, the runs scored by both sides will be added to a single team total, with the combined score deciding the winner.
Each match will be played over 80 overs in a single day. The first 40 overs will be played in daylight with a red ball and players wearing whites, while the remaining 40 overs will take place under floodlights with a white ball and players in coloured clothing. The best of them rose through trials on the ground and online over the last 300 days. On 14 November, that promise walks out for the first time, at the SSC in Colombo.
“A year ago this week, I introduced Test Twenty to the world with AB, Matthew, Sir Clive, Mike and Rohit beside me.
Under the format’s Parity Rule, the runs scored by one group will contribute directly to the result of the other group’s match, according to the press release. Test Twenty founder Gaurav Bahirvani said the tournament aims to create a new cricket format and platform for young players, with boys’ and girls’ performances contributing equally to a team’s result. Every night, one scoreboard,” he said.
The format will introduce a different approach to the toss. Besides deciding which team bats first, it will determine whether the girls’ or boys’ match takes place first. Scores will carry forward across both sessions, with no reset between them. Notably, thousands of young cricketers from five continents put their names forward. From those, the tournament’s Global Selection Committee has chosen the finest. The committee is chaired by Rajkumar Sharma, one of India’s most celebrated coaches. He expressed gratitude to Sri Lanka Cricket and the SSC for their support in bringing the inaugural tournament to Colombo, describing it as a historic moment for the game. It was an idea on paper, and a promise to young cricketers everywhere: a format of their own, a tournament of their own, and an ecosystem built around them. Parity is not only in the rules or the way our game is played. It is in the broadcast. Some nights, it will be the girls under the floodlights, in primetime, in front of the world. Other nights, the boys.
