{
  "id": 5723095,
  "title": "Ricky Ponting wants to drop the word ‘cricket’ to make the 'T20' sport popular in USA",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/ricky-ponting-wants-to-drop-the-word-cricket-to-make-the-t20-sport",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-05T05:38:05.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Sports",
    "slug": "yahoo-sports",
    "url": "https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/ricky-ponting-wants-drop-word-053805148.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting proposes a radical approach to popularizing T20 cricket in the United States. Ponting suggests dropping the word \"cricket\" entirely and rebranding the sport as simply \"T20\" to make it more appealing to American audiences. He believes that the name itself is a significant barrier to the sport's popularity in the States. Ponting compares T20 to baseball, highlighting the high frequency of sixes in T20 cricket, which would resonate with American sports fans who love power hitting. T20 cricket will make its return to the Olympics in 2028, with a 10,000-capacity dedicated stadium being built in Pomona, California, for the Los Angeles-based Major League Cricket.",
  "summary": "Ricky Ponting wants to drop the word \"cricket\" to popularize the sport in the USA, pitching a complete rebrand to \"T20\" to rival baseball and win young fans.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": "Ricky Ponting's plan to rebrand T20 cricket by dropping the word \"cricket\" aims to make the sport more appealing to American audiences by distancing it from its traditional identity.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 4,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Times of India",
        "title": "‘Don’t call it cricket’: Ponting makes radical T20 pitch to win over US fans",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/dont-call-it-cricket-ponting-makes-radical-t20-pitch-to-win-over-us",
        "published": "2026-09-05T02:32:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Yahoo Sports",
        "title": "‘Don’t call it cricket’: Ricky Ponting makes radical T20 pitch to win over US fans",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/dont-call-it-cricket-ricky-ponting-makes-radical-t20-pitch-to-win",
        "published": "2026-09-05T08:02:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Indian Express",
        "title": "‘Don’t call it cricket’: Ricky Ponting’s bold rebrand to woo US fans to sport",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/dont-call-it-cricket-ricky-pontings-bold-rebrand-to-woo-us-fans-to",
        "published": "2026-09-05T09:03:55.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}