London: english cricket takes a step into the unknown with the launch of hundred, a new 100 balls per side format on Wednesday.
Cricket already has several established professional formats at domestic and international levels – first-class games, including five-day Tests, 50-over ODIs per side and Twenty20 matches.
But even though Twenty20 is introduced as a professional sport in England, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are convinced that an even shorter format is needed to attract new, younger and more ethnically diverse audiences to the sport.
As former England captain, The Hundred eliminates the traditional six-ball over Michael Vaughan Tweeted: “A reminder that hundred will just be a game of cricket.. new rules.. some short deliveries.. but the best players playing against the best..!!! What’s not to like.. it’s only cricket.. I don’t get all the hate.”
But rather than the format, it is the potential knock-on effects of the Hundred that worry many within English cricket.
Instead of relying on the current 18 county set-up, the Hundred will feature eight specially created franchise teams – all featuring men’s and women’s sides.
Indeed a tournament that has been billed by one critic as “an attempt to secretly reduce the number of counties” will begin with a standalone women’s match between The Oval Invincible and Manchester Originals at The Oval in south London.
The Hundred was supposed to launch in 2020, but its launch was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And with Covid-19 still a factor, many big-name overseas players the ECB were hoping would participate, along with Australia’s David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada and Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi. The men’s event and Australia’s Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy are no longer involved in the women’s event.
Derbyshire recently had to cancel their last two matches in the popular T20 Blast as the pandemic meant they could not field a strong XI.
And with many first-choice players now turned into a hundred while the current county schedule continues, there are fears that another outbreak could wreak havoc with the schedule.
The ECB was accused of patronizing when it said the Hundred was aimed at “mothers and children”, presumed to be cricket too complex for them to understand.
But having used up its huge reserves of £70 million ($96 million) on marketing the Hundred, the ECB arguably cannot afford to fail.
Some matches will be broadcast on terrestrial television, with cricket having largely disappeared from free-to-air coverage in the UK since the 2005 Ashes – although this was an ECB decision.
Nevertheless, the Chief Executive Officer of the ECB Tom Harrison Confident that Hundred will provide the income and profile that is vital to the survival of English cricket.
“Before you assess what the Hundred brought with them, you have to assess what would have happened if we didn’t have them,” he said. “You have to look at the other side of it.
“It’s a scary atmosphere, really. It’s no free-to-air TV and it’s a big chunk of investment in sports that we won’t be able to bring in.”
He said: “We just need to make sure that, we always have in the back of our minds that the health of our sport is dependent on those two things in a very important way.
“Anything we can do to balance that huge reliance on keeping us safe and secure as a sport is to make us invest in the things we love – county cricket, test cricket, international cricket, Four-day championship cricket, playing men’s cricket with 450 professionals – they are absolutely vital to our long-term existence.
“The Hundred is fully immersed in the strategy of delivering all those things.”
Cricket already has several established professional formats at domestic and international levels – first-class games, including five-day Tests, 50-over ODIs per side and Twenty20 matches.
But even though Twenty20 is introduced as a professional sport in England, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are convinced that an even shorter format is needed to attract new, younger and more ethnically diverse audiences to the sport.
As former England captain, The Hundred eliminates the traditional six-ball over Michael Vaughan Tweeted: “A reminder that hundred will just be a game of cricket.. new rules.. some short deliveries.. but the best players playing against the best..!!! What’s not to like.. it’s only cricket.. I don’t get all the hate.”
But rather than the format, it is the potential knock-on effects of the Hundred that worry many within English cricket.
Instead of relying on the current 18 county set-up, the Hundred will feature eight specially created franchise teams – all featuring men’s and women’s sides.
Indeed a tournament that has been billed by one critic as “an attempt to secretly reduce the number of counties” will begin with a standalone women’s match between The Oval Invincible and Manchester Originals at The Oval in south London.
The Hundred was supposed to launch in 2020, but its launch was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And with Covid-19 still a factor, many big-name overseas players the ECB were hoping would participate, along with Australia’s David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada and Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi. The men’s event and Australia’s Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy are no longer involved in the women’s event.
Derbyshire recently had to cancel their last two matches in the popular T20 Blast as the pandemic meant they could not field a strong XI.
And with many first-choice players now turned into a hundred while the current county schedule continues, there are fears that another outbreak could wreak havoc with the schedule.
The ECB was accused of patronizing when it said the Hundred was aimed at “mothers and children”, presumed to be cricket too complex for them to understand.
But having used up its huge reserves of £70 million ($96 million) on marketing the Hundred, the ECB arguably cannot afford to fail.
Some matches will be broadcast on terrestrial television, with cricket having largely disappeared from free-to-air coverage in the UK since the 2005 Ashes – although this was an ECB decision.
Nevertheless, the Chief Executive Officer of the ECB Tom Harrison Confident that Hundred will provide the income and profile that is vital to the survival of English cricket.
“Before you assess what the Hundred brought with them, you have to assess what would have happened if we didn’t have them,” he said. “You have to look at the other side of it.
“It’s a scary atmosphere, really. It’s no free-to-air TV and it’s a big chunk of investment in sports that we won’t be able to bring in.”
He said: “We just need to make sure that, we always have in the back of our minds that the health of our sport is dependent on those two things in a very important way.
“Anything we can do to balance that huge reliance on keeping us safe and secure as a sport is to make us invest in the things we love – county cricket, test cricket, international cricket, Four-day championship cricket, playing men’s cricket with 450 professionals – they are absolutely vital to our long-term existence.
“The Hundred is fully immersed in the strategy of delivering all those things.”
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