Cricket | Live Scores

Cricket is the second most popular sport on Earth — a fact that surprises many who are unfamiliar with its global reach. With 2.5 billion fans concentrated in South Asia, the Caribbean, England, Australia, South Africa, and beyond, cricket commands viewing audiences that rival football. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the richest cricket competition and one of the most lucrative sporting leagues in the world. Test cricket — played across five days — is considered by devotees to be the ultimate test of character, skill, and endurance.

The earliest definite reference to cricket being played is from 1598 in Kent, England, where a court case mentioned "creckett" being played on common land. By 1700, cricket was a popular adult sport in southeastern England. The first significant code of laws was drawn up in 1744, and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) — founded in 1787 — became the sport's governing body and the custodian of the Laws of Cricket, a role it maintains to this day from its home at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.

Test cricket — the sport's highest and oldest form — began in 1877 when England toured Australia. Australia won that inaugural Test by 45 runs, beginning the oldest international sporting rivalry. The Ashes series between England and Australia has since been played every two years, with both nations competing for a tiny urn containing the "ashes" of English cricket. Test cricket's five-day format requires extraordinary concentration, strategy, and physical endurance, with matches capable of dramatic turnarounds through every session.

Cricket's most dramatic transformation came with the introduction of limited-overs formats. One-Day Internationals (ODIs), first played in 1971, compressed the game into a single day with each team batting 50 overs. The ICC Cricket World Cup, first held in 1975 in England, became a marquee event. Then in 2003, the Twenty20 (T20) format was introduced — 20 overs per side, completed in three hours — creating a high-energy spectacle perfect for prime-time television. T20 cricket changed cricket economics forever.

The Indian Premier League, launched in 2008, is cricket's most lucrative competition. The IPL franchise auction model attracts the world's best cricketers to play for city-based franchises in a two-month tournament. IPL media rights for 2023-2027 were sold for ₹48,390 crore ($6.2 billion) — making it the most expensive sports broadcast deal per match in the world, exceeding even the NBA and the NFL on a per-match basis. The IPL has made Indian cricket players the highest-paid in the world.

As of June 8, 2026, cricket's Laws are 282 years old. The sport is currently in the midst of its T20 World Cup cycle, with the ICC T20 World Cup featuring 20 national teams. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Babar Azam represent the current era of batting excellence. England's "Bazball" revolution under coach Brendon McCullum — an aggressive, positive test-match approach — has reinvigorated Test cricket. ZakGT brings live cricket scores to Southeast Asian fans across all formats.