Revolution in Cricket: Boys and Girls to Play Combined T20 Test, Inaugural Tournament to Be Held in Sri Lanka from November 14 to 29

*Colombo:* Cricket is set to witness an innovative new format, dubbed “Test Twenty,” in which boys and girls will play separate innings, but their performances will contribute to a single combined team score. The inaugural tournament is scheduled to take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from November 14 to 29, 2026.

The tournament will feature 160 young cricketers aged between 13 and 21, divided into four continental teams. Each team will comprise 20 boys and 20 girls. Under the proposed format, boys will compete against boys and girls against girls, but the final result will be determined by combining the scores of both groups.

Each match will consist of 80 overs, divided into two distinct phases. The first 40 overs will be played during the day with a red ball and traditional white clothing, while the remaining 40 overs will take place under floodlights using a white ball and coloured kits. The format aims to combine two different styles of cricket within a single match.

The tournament’s advisory board will include former South African captain AB de Villiers, former Australian opener Matthew Hayden and former West Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd. Rajkumar Sharma, childhood coach of Indian cricket star Virat Kohli, will head the global selection committee.

All matches will be held at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, with the final scheduled for November 29. The matches are expected to be broadcast live on the Sony Sports Network.

Test Twenty is being presented as an innovative experiment that brings boys’ and girls’ cricket together through a shared team score while maintaining separate on-field contests. Its success will depend on the competitiveness of the matches, the effectiveness of the format and the response of cricket fans.

The big question is whether this new concept will establish itself as a popular addition to the sport or remain a one-off experiment in cricket’s evolving landscape.