T20 promotes Lankan economy, tourism

The organising and hosting the will result in the development of tourism and will lead to more foreign exchange coming into the country. Sri Lanka Tourism too has come forward as a key player for the event.

The fourth edition of the ICC World T20 held for the first time in Asia, will include 12 male teams and 8 female teams vying for their respective cups over a 20 day period.Overall, the prize money is just under US$ 3 million with the men's winners taking US $ 1 million.

The event will be viewed across 226 territories, the highest-ever for an ICC event and is set to reach an audience of more than 1.5 billion.

This would give Rs. billions of free marketing to Sri Lanka as a destination. A random sample survey conducted by PepperCube Consultants, the fastest growing market research agency in Sri Lanka, indicates that the cricket mania is sweeping the country.

The survey was conducted via telephone using a structured questionnaire as the data collection tool cutting across males and females belonging to all age groups and socio economic classes.

The field work was carried out last month. According to the poll 80% of those polled were aware that the T20 world cup is going to be held in Sri Lanka whilst a majority of those who were "not-aware" werefemales.

As expected amongst those who plan to follow the games, an overwhelming 90 % will be glued to their TV sets whilsta relatively high 18 % also intend to go to the grounds (multiple responses). A significantly higher TV viewership is recorded compared to the survey results of the 2011 ICC World Cup held in Sri Lanka, where TV viewership was less than 70 %. Most interestingly those who plan to follow the cricket via the internet has increased from 4% in February 2011 to 19 % in September 2012, a remarkable increase in 20 months, supporting the broadband penetration drive in Sri Lanka.

Over 93 % of those surveyed are happy with the team selected to represent Sri Lanka at T20 world cup. Kudos from the general public to the selectors as more people are satisfied this year's team vs. 2011 50 over world cup team (33 % notsatisfied) Most expect Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene to perform the best for the Sri Lanka team followed by T M Dilshan and Lasith Malinga (multiple responses). Young Angelo Mathews who is building a reputation as a good "finisher" completes the "top 5" line-up.

As expected Kumar Sangakkara is tagged the most "favourite" Sri Lankan player among the general public followed by Mahela Jayawardene and Lasith Malinga(multiple responses).

Indian captain M.S. Dhoni is the most preferred foreign player followed by West Indian batsman Chris Gayle and young Indian batsman Virat Kohli (multiple responses).

The matches that include Sri Lanka-India-West Indies would be good crowd pullers both at the grounds and in the living rooms.

Most Sri Lankans expect Kumar Sangakkara to be the leading run scorer in the series followed by Indian batsman Virat Kohli and Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene.

Over 70 % of those surveyed expect "the slinga" Lasith Malingato be the highest wicket taker of the series. Unsurprisingly, over two thirds of those surveyed expect Sri Lanka to take the ICC World T20 cup followed by India.

This was compiled by PepperCube Consultants - the research consultants with hands-on "brand" and "research" experience in telecom, financial services, media, public enterprise, information technology and FMCG.

They could be contacted on [email protected]