Blast promises to break 1m barrier

The NatWest T20 Blast begins tonight with confidence growing that it could achieve its aim of attracting one million people through the gates in 2015 - two years ahead of schedule. It may need to as ambitions for a successful T20 tournament are higher than ever.

More than 700,000 people attended the NatWest T20 Blast last season, the first time England's domestic T20 tournament has seen such numbers, and with advance ticket sales a week before the tournament up 37% there is optimism that the tournament could lift the troubled mood around England cricket.

Such figures would be well ahead of the ECB's projections, with Gordon Hollins, the ECB chief operating officer, last summer targeting one million spectators by the end of the fourth season of the competition in 2017.

With concerns growing about the popularity and image of cricket in the UK, participation numbers falling and another excellent Big Bash League season in Australia attracting much attention, there is a greater sense of urgency at the ECB to establish a popular T20 tournament in accordance with the ECB's financial clout.

T20 is the format seen as being key to the commercial future and mass appeal of the domestic game. What is more, with public dissatisfaction with the ECB high in the wake of the latest developments in the Kevin Pietersen saga, the Blast perhaps represents the ECB's best chance to reconnect the sport with a notably disengaged public - even in an Ashes summer

Somerset, Surrey, Sussex and Essex, historically the most successful counties in terms of T20 attendances, are yet again leading the way with advanced ticket-sales this season.

Somerset have already sold out their home match against Surrey on Friday June 12 and are close to selling out their fixtures against Kent on May 31 and Hampshire on June 5. Essex only have limited availability of tickets for their matches against Surrey, Somerset and Hampshire. Surrey, meanwhile, despite increasing ticket and membership prices, have already sold close to 35,000 tickets.

However, the latest figures do suggest that the north is taking longer to be lured to Twenty20 in big numbers - although Yorkshire are confident that the advent of floodlights at Headingley, and the resulting later starts, will give them a sizeable boost. The most traditional county in the country, where the Championship still holds great sway with the public, is making unashamed play on its T20 ambitions this summer.

The Roses match between Yorkshire and Lancashire at Headingley has sold out but at the moment it remains an exception to a wider trend in which even the richer, city-based counties such as Lancashire and Warwickshire are struggling to replicate the popularity of the southern teams.

While the ECB have publicly given the existing format four seasons to prove its worth, the new CEO Tom Harrison is exploring in full the possibility of a franchise tournament and there is a feeling that this season could be a defining one for NatWest T20 Blast. With a stellar cast of overseas players, an aggressive marketing strategy and matches predominantly being played on the Friday night for a second season running if this season's Blast doesn't match the optimism of counties and the ECB then it may never do.

It should be pointed out, however, that there is palpable disappointment amongst the counties that the competition starts as early as it does. The lesson that resonates most clearly from the BBL is staging the season during the school holidays. Surrey claim a match in the holidays is worth double a match in May.

If this season's competition does underwhelm, the looming threat of a franchise tournament could force the counties to make significant concessions to the existing structure, such as two divisions of nine based on merit, sooner rather than later.

It seems that every season of England's domestic T20 is regarded as more important than the last and that accurately reflects cricket's continued struggle for relevance in the country. The difference being that this season there seems to be little room for error: patience is running out.