There are a lot of big changes happening in the world due to digital advancements, and cricket has not been left unaffected.
The rise of blockchain and cryptocurrency has smoothed the path of plenty of new technology, including NFTs, something that has become a focus of the ICC right now, with plenty of cricketers also getting involved.
The concept of the NFTs has far-reaching implications, with players in every industry talking about releasing their own non-fungible tokens as a form of memorabilia, but in cricket, the authentication aspect of NFTs has particular relevance.
What is an NFT?
Boiling it down to its main concept, on a piece of art you typically have the artist’s signature. On an NFT you have the owner’s signature, but it is made of data, and proves who the ‘owner’ of the digital art is. A non-fungible token is effectively a receipt, only it’s expensive and usually bought with cryptocurrency.
Businesses from every industry are releasing NFT memorabilia. The gaming industry is a big purveyor of this, with NFTs being given as loot box winnings some of Ubisoft’s newest releases and future games.
The gaming community has also taken an interest in cryptocurrency, with iGaming the biggest exponent of cryptocurrency, where you can play for real money or digital.
So, what are cricketers doing?
Memorabilia has always been a big part of the culture of cricket fans, with signed shirts fetching big prices, and some die-hards travelling around every county ground to get a full set of signatures. The natural next step in the digital age is to then attach an NFT. One of the biggest aspects of the culture of trading cards, for example, is proving that they are authentic, with scarcity playing a part in establishing value. An NFT uses data to confirm that they are authentic, and are necessarily scarce.
The International Cricket Council is releasing “Crictos”, which the ICC describes as digital collectibles, something like trading cards with extra digital elements. These collectibles cover the Cricket World Cup, the T20 World Cup and other ICC tournaments.
Will they have the same value, or rise in value, as mint-condition physical trading cards are expected to in the future?
That’s hard to determine. There are a lot of cynics of the NFT craze, but also a lot of die-hard fans of it. The die-hards insist that NFTs are improving memorabilia and therefore the sport of cricket itself, due to the fact that NFTs are stereotypically considered a young person’s game, and cricket stereotypically isn’t. People are hoping that the investment in NFTs will bring new blood to the sport.
Plus, debating whether you’re wasting your money on sports trading cards is as old as the sport itself!
