Village Cup final played in front of 20,000 fans

Records broken as match is broadcast live from Lord's

The Cricketer Village Cup reached a thrilling climax on September 19 as Colwall snatched victory in a match that went down to the last ball.

In a summer unlike any other, this will be the only non-professional match held at Lord’s. Our thanks go to MCC for upholding the fixture in such trying circumstances, so trying that not even any of the England sides ran out at the Home of Cricket this summer.

The match may have been behind closed doors but the 2020 final made history as the first Village Cup match to be broadcast live, with the stream being operated by the Melbourne-based company FrogBox, a division of InteractSport.

The stream was freely available to view on the Village Cup website and The Cricketer’s YouTube channel.

Nearly 19,000 viewers tuned in to cheer on their local heroes from 33 countries, some as far afield as Thailand and Japan.

The total watch time was 5,775 hours.

We would also like to thank our sponsors, Pipers Crisps, ExtraCover Insurance and Bola for their continued support throughout the summer. Our thanks too to Lord’s Taverners, the official charity of the competition. All partners had their branding displayed regularly during the broadcast to this worldwide audience.

This year’s Village Cup could have very easily not happened at all so to see Colwall snatch victory from the last ball of a superb game was very pleasing.

The 2021 Village Cup will be the 50th edition of this prestigious tournament. Paired with the 100th anniversary of The Cricketer magazine, this is not a celebration to be missed.

To find out more about sponsorship of the competition, please contact Jim Hindson at jim.hindson@thecricketer.com or call 020 3198 1354