As this year’s tournament has shown, the T20 World Cup is as unpredictable as any in modern sport. What history shows us, is that it’s also one of the most democratic.
Since the first tournament was held in 2007 in South Africa, the trophy has been lifted by six different teams. Only the West Indies, in 2012 and 2016, have won it twice.
As a direct comparison, the 50 World Cup, has had the same number since its inception in 1975. Anyone who watched that original tournament – which included an innings of 36 not out in 60 overs from Indian great Sunil Gavaskar – will tell you that the cricket we’re witnessing in Australia this winter is from another planet entirely.
This World Cup is very much a symbol of the modern game, and the performances from the likes of Ireland and the Netherlands over the past few weeks, illustrate the health of the sport in this particular format.
It’s crash, bang, wallop cricket but, in essence, the basics remain the same. Wickets change matches, memorable innings can alter the course of a game, and a dropped catch can be the difference between celebration and commiseration.
And at the heart of it all, sits a trophy that all the teams involved are desperate to take home with them. Residing resplendently on a plinth, waiting to be handed to the winner of the final at the MCG on November 13, the T20 World Cup is considerably slimmer than the bats thwacking the ball prodigious distances across Australia.
Designed and hand-crafted in our London workshop, the trophy, like the tournament itself, is an elegant fusion of the traditional and the modern. It’s also a piece of silverware which continues Thomas Lyte’s enduring relationship with the ICC, having also created the iconic World Test Championship Mace – still one of the most striking prizes in global sport.
The Thomas Lyte T20 World Cup was handed to the victors of the tournament for the first time in Dubai in 2021. Aaron Finch’s side beat New Zealand by eight wickets at the Dubai International Stadium, which would have made the Kiwis’ reversal of that victory in the group stages of this year’s tournament all the more satisfying. Particularly as it occurred in Australia’s own backyard.
The 2021 tournament had a unique story to tell, with the competition originally slated to take place in Australia the previous year. Covid put pay to that, with the World Cup then rescheduled until 2021 in India. Eventually, it was moved to the UAE.
The World Cup itself served to put a smile on cricket lovers the world over, as sport eventually found its feet despite the impact of the pandemic continuing to be felt. There’s certainly a sense that the 2022 edition of the event is as close to normal as it’s possible to get, although the surprises sprung since Namibia shocked Sri Lanka in the opening match, have made this World Cup as unpredictable as any in history.
It’s the element of the unexpected that makes T20 perhaps the most compelling and disruptive format modern sport has ever created. It’s also one of the major reasons why Thomas Lyte is so proud to be associated with it.
As well as the trophy, Thomas Lyte also designed and made the Player of the Match awards, Player of the Tournament awards, and the champions’ medals
T20, you see, shares many of the values that we ourselves hold dear – the mash-up between established traditional ways of doing things and innovation, the passion for being bold and unabashed.
The reasons people love T20 cricket, are also many of the reasons we do what we do and why we continue to strive to challenge and stretch ourselves day after day.
We’re not going to predict who will win the 2022 World Cup. But we will tell you one thing.
Whoever lifts our trophy will be the deserving champions.
Note from the editor: While we are fiercely non-partisan, all at Thomas Lyte are delighted to see our home nation, England, lift the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Trophy. Following the nerve-wracking final, we wanted to share one further image that shows the unbridled joy on the faces of champions, lifting the trophy with Thomas Lyte medals around their necks.
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