A THIRD of all hospitality places and more than 80,000 tickets have been sold in advance for this year’s Twenty20 Cup. At the launch at Lord’s today the ECB will declare itself confident of passing the aggregate figure of 250,000 spectators who watched games in the ground-breaking summer of 2003.

Headline announcements will include confirmation that Girls Aloud are to perform on finals day at Edgbaston on August 7. Last season Atomic Kitten graced the same event at Trent Bridge.

The ECB recognises the importance of scoring another success so the first year of the competition does not go down as a one-hit wonder. In the past three weeks alone people have purchased 40,000 tickets spread between the 18 counties, in part a spin-off from the continuing good form and profile of the England side.

So far more than 10,000 seats have been taken for the first 20-overs match at Lord’s, between Middlesex and Surrey on July 15. In the North, around 1,000 hospitality places are already taken for the Roses match at Headingley the day before. With an extra quarter-final stage introduced this season and the greater capacity of the venue for the semi-finals and final, only a downturn in the weather should prevent the ECB from reaching its target, after the shrewd decision to avoid a clash with Euro 2004.

Spending more than £20,000 on booking a pop group must be interpreted as a sign that officials are still not confident that the excitement of the short format alone is enough to draw a younger audience. Figures, however, suggest that some first-timers did return for the longer one-day games last summer. The counties have again been encouraged to show imagination with the sideshows, which include a “speed dating” event at Worcestershire.