South Africa - where domestic cricket was also in poor shape financially - decided to try Twenty20 in April 2004 and more than 150,000 watched 17 games.

Billionare American businessman Allen Stanford launched a Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean in 2006 involving 17 countries and a $1m prize.

Australia launched its own event - the Twenty20 Big Bash - in 2006, and its popularity saw the number of games for 2007 doubled.

In fact, India is now the only Test nation without a domestic 20-over competition but in August the BCCI announced plans for one.