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The Group of Twenty (G20) has substantial influence in global economic policy but has been peripheral in global education governance. There is intensification of education policy-relevant engagement within the Think 20 (T20), the “ideas bank” and official engagement group of the G20. The authors analyse the evolution of education as a policy domain within the T20, the ideas and discursive framing of education and global education policy “solutions” and assumptions about the G20 in education policy engagement.

The authors view the T20 as an external actor that can mobilise policy-relevant ideas to G20 actors responsible for internal policy selection and translation. The analysis covers the period 2018–2021 when education became an explicit T20 policy area. The authors screened all 461 T20 policy briefs across all domains. Of these, 32 briefs and four final T20 Summit communiqués were reviewed using critical discourse analysis. Data were supplemented via organisational websites and tacit professional knowledge.

Three assumptions on the G20 as an actor prevailed: (1) policymaker, (2) policy shaper and (3) knowledge mobiliser. The framing ideas on education were linked to assumptions on drivers of education system reform as intertwined with, or to enable: (1) economic adaptation, (2) technical adaptation and (3) socio-political adaptation of individuals and societies.

Accelerated education engagement within the T20 and its direct reach to G20 leaders makes it, and the G20, analytically unique and new unexamined actors of potential influence. The authors conclude that the T20 is positioned as a unique actor, both that can mobilise education policy-relevant ideas to G20 leaders, and legitimised as the actor from which G20 leaders and policymakers should adopt ideas.

Using two theoretical lenses – social identity theory and generation cohort theory – the present study analyzes the influence of sport motivations (i.e., patriotism, drama and excitement of the game, nostalgic associations, interest in star players and social influence) on the intentions to watch the International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty-20 (T20) World Cup of three different generation cohorts (i.e., Generations X, Y and Z).

Data were collected from N = 499 cricket lovers from Pakistan based on a non-probability sampling technique. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group modeling techniques were used as methods.

SEM results show that cricket fans' intentions to watch the T20 World Cup are positively influenced by patriotism, drama and excitement of the game, and social influence. The results of multi-group modeling reveal significant differences between Generation X-ers, Y-ers and Z-ers regarding the effect of sport motivations on their intentions to watch the ICC T20 World Cup. Specifically, our findings show that for X-ers, interest in star players and nostalgic associations are the main motivations behind watching the T20 World Cup, whereas drama and excitement appeared to be an important predictor for Y-ers, and patriotism and social influence are more likely to increase Z-ers' intentions to watch the T20 World Cup.

This study is the first of its kind to report the motivations of Generations X, Y and Z to watch the T20 World Cup.

This study explores match related factors and their impact on the batting strike rate in Twenty20 cricket – an aspect which can generate excitement and fan engagement in cricket matches.

Data was collected from www.cricinfo.com using a web scraping tool based on R programming from February 17, 2005, to October 25, 2022, numbering 4,221 men’s Twenty20 international innings featuring 41 national teams that had taken place in 85 venues across 11 countries of play. Hypothesis testing was conducted using one-way ANOVA.

The findings indicate that batters score faster in the first inning of a match, and mean strike rates also vary significantly based on the country of play. Further, the study analyses the top performing national sides, venues and country of play in terms of mean batting strike rate, thus providing insights to cricket boards, international regulating bodies of cricket, sponsors, media companies and coaching staff for better decision-making based on batting strike rate.

The originality of the study lies in its focus on using non-marketing strategies to increase fan engagement. Further, this study is the first one to examine different venues from the perspective of batting strike rate in men’s Twenty20 international matches.

This paper focusses on how the educated and less-educated middle class react differently to income increases, against an intertwined literature backdrop of Engel's law, quality of life, aspirational and conspicuous consumption. The paper seeks to answer two main questions: Is there evidence of the middle class, particularly the educated, trying to emulate the upper class by shifting towards aspirational consumption? Is there any distinct expenditure behaviour amongst the middle class?

Combining the Malaysian 2016 Household Expenditure Survey (HES) and the 2016 Consumer Price Indices datasets, quantile estimations are applied on the merged dataset of 14,326 households.

There is evidence of the educated middle class emulating the upper class in terms of food share, home furnishing and starchy produce expenditure behaviour. The less-educated middle class exhibits a predilection for home furnishing expenditures when income increases, whilst the educated shows signs of dissociating themselves from such material acquisitions. The paper concludes that the middle class is collectively an aspirational class, but with diverging paths towards upward social mobility between the educated and less-educated households.

Aspirational consumption of the middle class has not been given detailed empirical treatment at the household micro-level in the literature, especially for upper-middle income countries like Malaysia. The paper starts off by detecting an anomaly in the Engel's food share coefficients, where the middle class sees unexpected larger declines in food share than those of the upper class. This is the paper's departure point from the literature.

Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the more popular cricket world tournaments, and its financial is increasing each season, its viewership has increased markedly and the betting market for IPL is growing significantly every year. With cricket being a very dynamic game, bettors and bookies are incentivised to bet on the match results because it is a game that changes ball-by-ball. This paper investigates machine learning technology to deal with the problem of predicting cricket match results based on historical match data of the IPL. Influential features of the dataset have been identified using filter-based methods including Correlation-based Feature Selection, Information Gain (IG), ReliefF and Wrapper. More importantly, machine learning techniques including Naïve Bayes, Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN) and Model Trees (classification via regression) have been adopted to generate predictive models from distinctive feature sets derived by the filter-based methods. Two featured subsets were formulated, one based on home team advantage and other based on Toss decision. Selected machine learning techniques were applied on both feature sets to determine a predictive model. Experimental tests show that tree-based models particularly Random Forest performed better in terms of accuracy, precision and recall metrics when compared to probabilistic and statistical models. However, on the Toss featured subset, none of the considered machine learning algorithms performed well in producing accurate predictive models.

A finite volume method is applied to numerical simulations of steady isothermal and non‐isothermal flows of fluids obeying different constitutive equations: Newtonian, purely viscous with shear‐thinning properties (Carreau law) and viscoelastic Upper Convected Maxwell differential model whose temperature dependence is described by a William‐Landel‐Ferry equation. The flow situations concern various abrupt axisymmetric contractions from 2:1 to 16:1. Such flow geometries are involved in polymer processing operations. The governing equations are discretized on a staggered grid with an upwind scheme for the convective‐type terms and are solved by a decoupled algorithm, stabilized by a pseudo‐transient stress term and an elastic viscous stress splitting technique. The numerical results highlight the influence of temperature on the flow situations, and also the complex behaviour of the materials under non‐isothermal conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature, frequency, and duration of alcohol-related promotions and crowd alcohol consumption during major sports events broadcasted on the SKY Sport network between September 2011 and February 2012.

Content analyses for various categories of alcohol-related images were conducted, including a novel inclusion of analysing crowd alcohol consumption.

The results provide empirical evidence that sponsorship and activation-related activities of alcohol brands subvert national regulations that ban alcohol advertising during daytime television programming.

The results serve to sensitise researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and regulators to the prevalence of incidental alcohol promotional material within the overall televised alcohol advertising mix and the broader societal exposure to such images. This research also informs readers that alcohol companies and media outlets produce alcohol-related marketing that may not be in-line with the meaning and/or intent of laws.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the financial well-being (FWB) of Malaysian households and to construct a subjective FWB index with present and future time perspectives.

Data were collected from 1,867 respondents across five major regions in Malaysia. Adapting the InCharge Financial Distress/Financial Well-being (IFDFW) Scale by Prawitz et al. (2006) and the method of computing an index by Devlin (2009), this study develops an FWB index using subjective measures that include future time perspectives (retirement). The index was employed to measure the FWB across low-, middle- and high-income groups and socio-demographic characteristics.

This study finds evidence that Malaysians' FWB is at an average level (46.8). Middle-income households' FWB (46.1) flanks between the financial well-being index (FWBI) levels of the low-income (37.4) and high-income households (58.7). Across age groups, education levels and employment sectors, the FWB of Malaysians significantly varies, although not across different ethnics, religions, zones and residential areas. Overall, the results suggest that the detrimental effects of FWB are perceived by all Malaysian households nationwide regardless of their religion, ethnicity and residential areas.

The results of this study complement the other well-being indices used by policymakers and may serve as a useful input for government and policymakers for them to formulate appropriate strategies to promote higher FWB of Malaysian households based on their socio-demographic characteristics.

This study used primary data and developed a subjective FWB index that leverages on people's perceptions of their own financial well-being while including present and future time perspectives. The main contribution of this paper is to construct an index that is easily interpretable and that complements the existing FWB indices, and to identify the segments of society that have low vis-à-vis high FWB.

Direct additive manufacturing of ceramics (DAMC) is a highly promising ceramics preparation technology because of its simple process and rapid response capability, but the cracking issue prevents its industrial application. The purpose of this paper is to propose aluminum titanate (Al₂TiO₅) with low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) to suppress cracks during the DAMC.

Al₂O₃/Al₂TiO₅ (A/AT) composite ceramic samples with different compositions were in-situ synthesized from Al₂O₃/TiO₂ (A/T) powder in a directed laser deposition (DLD) process. The relationship between the content of TiO₂ and cracking characteristics of fabricated sample was discussed. Phase composition, microstructure and properties of the fabricated samples were also investigated.

The results of this paper show that the doping of TiO₂ can obtain Al₂TiO₅ synthesized in situ by reaction with Al₂O₃ and effectively suppress cracks during DAMC. When the content of TiO₂ reaches 30 wt.per cent, cracks hardly occur even under conditions of slow deposition. Crack-free structures such as vane, cone and pyramid were successfully prepared, with a maximum cross-sectional dimension of 30 mm and maximum length of 150 mm. A continuous matrix phase formed of the low CTE of Al₂TiO₅ is the major cause of crack suppression. The dispersed distribution of a-Al₂O₃ columnar dendrites has the effect of increasing the strength of the matrix. Under current process conditions, the prepared sample with 10 wt.per cent TiO₂ has micro-hardness of 21.05 GPa and flexural strength of 170 MPa.

This paper provides a new method and inspiration for direct additive manufacturing of large-sized crack-free ceramics, which has the potential to promote practical application of the technology.