Page 42 - The Indian EYE 010325

SPORTS JANUARY 03, 2025 | The Indian Eye 42

YEAR-ENDER 2024

This year, Men in Blue brought home

a trophy ending a 13-year-old drought

“Amplifying cricket to more people around the globe”: Jay Shah on T20 World Cup

figuring in top Google trends 2024

OUR BUREAU
Mumbai

ndia ended a 13-year ICC World
Cup trophy drought by defeating
ISouth Africa by seven runs in the
T20WC Final on June 29. The tour-
nament was co-hosted by the United
States and West Indies.
Virat was the player of the match
in the T20 Men’s World Cup final for
his valuable knock of 76. Bumrah,
who got 15 scalps throughout the
tournament at a stunning economy
rate of 4.17, got the ‘Player of the
Tournament’ honours.
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in
the USA and West Indies saw in-
credible fan engagement across the
event and a lot of interest in cricket.
Fans in the USA turned out in
large numbers for the first part of the
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which
was held in the country. Around
1,90,000 fans attended matches in
the United States that captivated the
country and set the stage for cricket’s
continued growth in North America.
Grand Prairie in Texas saw en-
thusiastic support with an atten- Rohit Sharma plays a shot during the Group A match against USA in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, at Nassau County International Cricket Stadi-
dance of over 22,000 across the four
matches, highlighted by a huge turn- um in New York (ANI Photo/Surjeet Yadav)
out from Nepal fans and not forget-
ting US fans who witnessed the his- front of over 4,000 enthusiastic fans, App, which was up 370 per cent from interest there was globally in the
toric upset of Pakistan by the USA, many of whom had endured several the number recorded for the entire @ICC @T20WorldCup this year.
ICC had said in a release. days of unprecedented rainfall, and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022, of #TopGoogleTrends2024,” Jay Shah
Nassau County International the resulting three washouts. those viewers 52 per cent were new said in a post on X.
Cricket Stadium in New York, the Tens of thousands more fans at- fans coming to the ICC platforms. He attached a photo of the two
largest venue in the World Cup, tended fan parks at Cedar Creek in With the T20 Men’s World Cup teams which played the final and a
lived-up to its billing by hosting Nassau County, Citi Field and the making it to the top Google Trends screenshot of Google top trends.
the largest crowd in USA history World Trade Center in NYC, Epic 2024, International Cricket Council The time spent on the ICC web-
for international cricket when In- Central in Grand Prairie and Fisher Chairman Jay Shah has said that am- site and App doubled for those re-
dia played Pakistan (34,028), and Pavilion in Seattle, while unofficial plifying the sport of cricket to more corded in 2022 and 71 per cent of
closed its run with a true celebration watch parties were seen around the people around the globe is one of the users were coming from organic
of cricket between India and USA country. the main priorities for the ICC mem- search showcasing the increased in-
(31,722). In total, almost 165,000 Fans across the USA also en- bers. terest in the sport.
people attended World Cup games gaged digitally with the World Cup “Amplifying the sport of crick- The fan zones were a fun place
in New York. with fantastic numbers recorded et to more people around the globe to introduce new fans to cricket
The US leg of the event con- across the ICC’s platforms. There is one of the main priorities for the through interactive cricket-themed
cluded in Broward County, Florida were 2.7 million USA-based users re- ICC members and I, so it’s encour- games, immersive stadium experi-
where Pakistan played Ireland in corded visiting the ICC website and aging to see evidence of how much ences and much more.

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