| The Hundred 09:15 - Aug 17 with 1303 views | woodbridge_blue |
There is a continual debate amongst cricket followers about he pros and cons of The Hundred, and I can see both sides of the argument.
Last night I had the privilege to be at The Oval to witness one of the greatest onslaught of hitting I have ever seen in such a short space of time.
Invincibles smashed the previous record by scoring 226 for 4 in a 100 balls, with Jordan Cox bludgeoning 86 in 29 balls.
In total there were 25 sixes in the match, another competition record.
Whatever the merits of the competition, 26,000 people were entertained as never before, lots and lots of youngsters, some enjoying their first taste of live cricket on a beautiful South London summer evening.
Seriously, what's not to like? |  | | |  |
| The Hundred on 00:10 - Aug 18 with 65 views | Kievthegreat |
| The Hundred on 23:42 - Aug 17 by ArnoldMoorhen |
It's not just that.
It's that the same 7 or 8 Counties who get all the Test Matches, Internationals, and Finals now get to create a new competition and completely exclude the other Counties.
A few years ago David Willey won the T20 Finals for Northants with an incredible display of hitting and then stunning death bowling.
He then signed for Yorkshire (one of the privileged Test Match venue Counties).
I was told by someone ITK at Northants that there was a fee paid and Northants asked him to go because that fee was the only opportunity they had to balance the books.
I was told the fee was £50,000.
That's how desperate the other Counties are.
Northants is a rural County with lots of village cricket teams and some notable Public Schools in it's catchment area. As well as David Willey it has produced Ben Duckett for the England Test side. Before them Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar came through their system.
Northants realised that they couldn't compete in the County Championship, and prioritised T20 as a way to generate excitement, crowds and income, to sustain the County into the future. And they have more than punched their weight in it.
If the Hundred expands, and eventually swallows T20 (because there is really no point in having both) then where does that leave Counties like Northants? Or Essex, Sussex, or Worcestshire etc etc?
They will go bust. [Post edited 17 Aug 23:46]
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The fundamental issue with the hundred isn't the 100 balls vs 20 overs, the razzmatazz, etc... It's about the massively side-lining of smaller counties. It's the English Cricket equivalent of the European Super League or the Premier League abolishing relegation, except rather than admonish the proposal like the FA, UEFA, et al did/would, the ECB were the driving force.
It would have been possible to setup a 2 division T20 Blast in a good slot in summer. That way you can concentrate some real talent in those top tier overseas talent in those teams in division 1 while giving the division 2 teams a meaningful competition and way back to the top table.
Instead they set up franchises that will bring an influx of private equity funds to buy stakes in closed shop league (although weighted against an enormous investment by the ECB to kick start their plan). At the moment it's Northants/Leicestershire/Derbyshire that suffer. Eventually though Essex and Sussex, teams that are well run and competitive(for the most part) will find themselves economically strangled. Essex are big enough to compete right now, but too small to be allowed a seat at the private equity league table. |  | | |
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