As ever, football blazed the trail. The Premier League and the Champions League may both seem like they’ve been around forever, but were created only in the early 1990s. And crucially, their phenomenal consumer and commercial success inspired dozens of imitations in every major sport worldwide.

Twenty20 cricket is the latest seismic event in the series, and could just be the most transformational yet. Created by the ECB in 2003 as a purely domestic marketing tactic to recruit a new generation of fans and counter negative perceptions of cricket, Twenty20 has now mutated into an international marketing phenomenon.

Recent weeks have seen Twenty20 launches literally flying off the NPD conveyor belt. The Indian Premier League, the Stanford Twenty20 for 20 and the Twenty20 Champions League have generated worldwide coverage and serious money, and in so doing confirmed Twenty20 as unquestionably world cricket’s dominant commercial product.

For brands either already involved in cricket, or considering it as a marketing option, it’s still too early to gauge any major effects of the Twenty20 phenomenon. It’s clear that it is impacting on cricket as a brand and on its ability to engage consumers, but to what extent?

Intriguingly, we won’t have to wait too long for significant insights. In the summer of 2009 old and new cricket will come together as never before in the UK, with the visit of Australia for an Ashes Series, and the staging of the ICC World Twenty20. Watch this space.