How the 2027 Cricket World Cup can win new fans

Growing up in New Zealand in the 80s and 90s, cricket dictated the rhythm of summer: where you were, who you watched with, conversations around the game and the personalities in the team. I connected emotionally with cricket before I fully understood it technically.

As I became exposed to cricket from other countries, I loved that each nation brought its own sound, attitude, rituals, heroes and way of expressing its relationship with the sport. That variety is one of cricket’s greatest assets, and a World Cup is the moment when it becomes most visible.

But for someone new to cricket there is a lot to take in, and, in a world where sports fans have endless entertainment at their fingertips, the challenge isn’t to change cricket but to give people a more compelling way into it.

The Hundred has done this brilliantly - bringing more energy through music, punchy formats and the scheduling of male and female games back-to-back. But, a World Cup shouldn’t pinch all of these levers… and it’d be wrong to try. 

That’s what excites me about the 2027 tournament - there’s a great opportunity to harness what we all love about the sport and weave them into the competition.

The tournament tagline, ‘Make the Circle Bigger’, signals an appetite to bring new audiences into cricket, without losing sight of what already makes the game distinctive. The opportunity is to do what cricket did for me: create the emotional connection first, then let curiosity, understanding and fandom follow.

It’s no secret that if you want to convince someone of the joys of anything new, they need to experience it first hand. The danger, however, is creating “cricket + entertainment”: a match with a DJ, a music performance and generic family activities that do nothing for new fans and alienate older ones.

That’s something the best experiential work gets right and that sports formats can learn from: the overall experience becomes a reason to participate, rather than another thing competing for attention.

Music can do more than fill gaps between innings. Creating signature sounds or music that supporters can recognise, participate in and share can drive an association long after the competition has finished. As anyone still humming Shakira’s FIFA World Cup anthem can attest.

A global tournament should feel rooted in the places hosting it - in this case South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. The opportunity is not to apply a generic festival experience to every venue, but to allow each city, community and competition to bring a different cultural character to the World Cup. 

One-day international cricket occupies a significant part of the day. That’s often presented as a problem for contemporary attention spans, but experientially it can be an asset. More hours in the stadium means more drink and meal breaks, more wandering through the communal areas, and more opportunities for different forms of audience participation through content that taps into each nation’s rich tapestry of music, food, entertainment and history.

And it’s about capitalising on that time, thinking about the fan journey as a whole and providing added value around things that are often overlooked. Take La Roche-Posay’s sunscreen stations at the Melbourne F1 weekend: a brilliant execution and a reminder that sometimes the most valuable things aren’t the most spectacular.

Similarly at Goodwood Revival this year, our World of Edmiston experience put participation at the centre, inviting guests to share their own travel stories as part of the installation. It’s a useful reminder that the strongest experiences don’t just entertain audiences, they give them a role within them. 

New audiences do not necessarily connect with a sport through formats, statistics or formal interviews but instead find their way in through social media and player-led content. These also provide an opportunity to connect emotionally. By working with players and teams, brands will create a connection that will outlast every match.  

And the atmosphere at a World Cup should not simply be delivered to spectators; it should be created with them. Turn a crowd into a community and make participation part of the tournament experience.

However, a live event shouldn’t be treated as a closed moment available only to people lucky enough to have a ticket. Allowing audiences around the world to contribute content that can appear inside the stadium, while creating match stories that begin before people enter the stadium and continue beyond the broadcast window, are just some examples of how to make both spectators and viewers feel part of the action.

It needs to be a singular vision; one of the most multi-layered launches we created was Hyundai’s IONIQ 6, which combined immersive experiences, simulators, community interaction, VIP access and the live Hill Climb moment. But, the experience wasn’t simply something that happened for those who were there - some of the most powerful moments began before the experience and lasted long after it ended.

In all this, it’s imperative to remember to create content that’s designed around genuine moments. Asking people to perform for a camera will not create powerful, shareable content because experiences aren’t about manufacturing the fandom or trying to create the buzz, they’re about creating the conditions for it to happen naturally.

The World Cup is not one cricket culture on a global stage, it is many cricket cultures meeting in one place. New audiences don’t necessarily fall in love with formats first. They fall in love with players, moments and the feeling of belonging. The objective is not simply to churn out more content but to generate greater participation by opening more doors into cricket’s existing identity.

Richard Hartle is creative director, Collaborate Global