| The Hundred 09:15 - Aug 17 with 1888 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 314 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. |  | | |
| The Hundred on 08:15 - Aug 18 with 236 views | Radlett_blue |
| The Hundred on 00:10 - Aug 18 by Kievthegreat |
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. |
Your idea of a 2 tier Blast is a sound one, but I would question the sense of continuing to try to keep 18 first class counties on perpetual life support. Without money from the ECB (essentially recycled Sky money of the England team) most of them would go bust. A first class structure is needed to produce England players, but if you started from scratch, you wouldn't have 18 teams. |  |
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| The Hundred on 08:20 - Aug 18 with 228 views | chicoazul |
It’s a tough one as it’s very non traditional obviously but my cricket mad son and all his club mates watch it religiously and love it. |  |
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| The Hundred on 08:42 - Aug 18 with 196 views | Kievthegreat |
| The Hundred on 08:15 - Aug 18 by Radlett_blue |
Your idea of a 2 tier Blast is a sound one, but I would question the sense of continuing to try to keep 18 first class counties on perpetual life support. Without money from the ECB (essentially recycled Sky money of the England team) most of them would go bust. A first class structure is needed to produce England players, but if you started from scratch, you wouldn't have 18 teams. |
I think there's some validity to the issue of 18 counties possibly being more than required. However I don't think we'd ever countenance the same arguments being made for football. You could set up a PL1/2 system and have a nucleus of 40-ish professional and well funded clubs with strong academy systems. They can cover the majority of the country and majority cities and develop players for the national team. L1/2 teams aren't really necessary and they already rely on scraps from the top table.
For me the equation with all the Hundred stuff was, could you have put investment into the Blast or equivalent and yielded similar? Answer is sort of mixed. You could have got crowds and engagement and possibly on a bigger scale or more of a spread rather than the same 8 franchises. However I don't think private investment would be as interested at investing directly into counties. | | | |
| The Hundred on 08:59 - Aug 18 with 188 views | rkc123 |
The T20 blast would also sell out grounds, during the English summer there are enough people who are happy to go and watch a fun few hours of cricket that tickets will always sell for whatever the centrepiece shortform tournament happens to be. The TV viewing figures of The Hundred though are not good, the free to air games have seen a steady decline in viewers since its first year. They seem to have drawn in the required interest of investment funds, billionaire families, and proto chemical companies (surely the dream of every young cricketer) to make the whole thing churn along and make money for the ECB.
It was obviously 20 years ago now, but when you consider peak viewing figures for the 2005 ashes on channel 4 were around 6-8 million, and the final of the mens hundred last year was 1.3 million (on BBC), I think it is fair to say the format has not fully tapped the potential viewership for the sport. | | | |
| The Hundred on 09:18 - Aug 18 with 173 views | Tony73 |
I support any attempt to get new audiences watching and participating in cricket as helps the game top to bottom - only issue I have with it is theres no obvious connection with any team. I follow Essex so can't really see any affiliation with the 100 sides in the same way someone from Birmingham, Manchester or Wales might have | | | |
| The Hundred on 09:35 - Aug 18 with 151 views | Ryorry |
| The Hundred on 08:15 - Aug 18 by Radlett_blue |
Your idea of a 2 tier Blast is a sound one, but I would question the sense of continuing to try to keep 18 first class counties on perpetual life support. Without money from the ECB (essentially recycled Sky money of the England team) most of them would go bust. A first class structure is needed to produce England players, but if you started from scratch, you wouldn't have 18 teams. |
How have the Australians organised their cricket structure/s? They seem pretty successful! so if we were starting from scratch, I’d definitely be having a look at theirs. |  |
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| The Hundred on 09:46 - Aug 18 with 131 views | Radlett_blue |
| The Hundred on 08:59 - Aug 18 by rkc123 |
The T20 blast would also sell out grounds, during the English summer there are enough people who are happy to go and watch a fun few hours of cricket that tickets will always sell for whatever the centrepiece shortform tournament happens to be. The TV viewing figures of The Hundred though are not good, the free to air games have seen a steady decline in viewers since its first year. They seem to have drawn in the required interest of investment funds, billionaire families, and proto chemical companies (surely the dream of every young cricketer) to make the whole thing churn along and make money for the ECB.
It was obviously 20 years ago now, but when you consider peak viewing figures for the 2005 ashes on channel 4 were around 6-8 million, and the final of the mens hundred last year was 1.3 million (on BBC), I think it is fair to say the format has not fully tapped the potential viewership for the sport. |
The 2005 Ashes did capture a lot of people's imagination & drew big TV figures, but that was a one-off & the televised sport market is so much more fragmented now that it's not really relevant to the current situation. What I will say about 20/20 & the 100 is that while I don't like the format & rarely watch it, I have been to a few live games & the demographic is completely different from Test cricket - more young people, more families & more ethnic minorities. The development of short format was essential if cricket is to remain relevant, rather than a sport for pensioners & lads on a stag day. | |
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| The Hundred on 10:25 - Aug 18 with 109 views | mellowblue |
| The Hundred on 00:10 - Aug 18 by Kievthegreat |
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. |
I am no friend of the Hundred, awful format. But surely on of the major points of selling the Hundred to the franchises is to safeguard the traditional counties. They are set to receive quite a few million each to build reserves reduce debt and improve infrastructure. If put in reserves, invested wisely it should generate enough to keep the smaller counties solvent. Of course the bigger counties who host the Hundred test matches etc will do better than the smaller counties, but that has always been the case, though Surrey is currently turning into the Man City of 5 years ago, massively advantaged.
Another point raised is the T20 Blast lasts from May to September. This has been criticised heavily . They play all the group games in May and then put it aside until September for finals day, by which time all momentum is gone. Patently absurd and finals day should be early June when generally the weather is reliable and the day is long.
Re the Hundred, once it is fully or partly franchise owned, it will revert to T20. It is bound to. Having an international series of franchise cricket competitions 7 or whatever t20 and 1 the Hundred will not make sense to the franchise owners.
Having two t20 competitions nationally will be okay, they are not directly competing with eachother and will have very different flavours, will be seperated by almost 2 months and have different support bases.
On another note, I have always thought it a shame that the ECB cancelled the old John Player League 40 over competition on Sundays. Always got good crowds and was a proper afternoon out for families. | | | |
| The Hundred on 11:17 - Aug 18 with 83 views | Radlett_blue |
| The Hundred on 10:25 - Aug 18 by mellowblue |
I am no friend of the Hundred, awful format. But surely on of the major points of selling the Hundred to the franchises is to safeguard the traditional counties. They are set to receive quite a few million each to build reserves reduce debt and improve infrastructure. If put in reserves, invested wisely it should generate enough to keep the smaller counties solvent. Of course the bigger counties who host the Hundred test matches etc will do better than the smaller counties, but that has always been the case, though Surrey is currently turning into the Man City of 5 years ago, massively advantaged.
Another point raised is the T20 Blast lasts from May to September. This has been criticised heavily . They play all the group games in May and then put it aside until September for finals day, by which time all momentum is gone. Patently absurd and finals day should be early June when generally the weather is reliable and the day is long.
Re the Hundred, once it is fully or partly franchise owned, it will revert to T20. It is bound to. Having an international series of franchise cricket competitions 7 or whatever t20 and 1 the Hundred will not make sense to the franchise owners.
Having two t20 competitions nationally will be okay, they are not directly competing with eachother and will have very different flavours, will be seperated by almost 2 months and have different support bases.
On another note, I have always thought it a shame that the ECB cancelled the old John Player League 40 over competition on Sundays. Always got good crowds and was a proper afternoon out for families. |
I used to love the JPL, both when watching Essex live in the 1970s & also on TV. The big difference is that then there was nothing else to watch on most Sunday afternoons.
The fixture list has changed beyond all recognition & in England is now a complete mess, but I find it hard to see what will change, given that England have to play a certain number of games each summer to fulfil their Sky contract, while the Blast & the Hundred both bring in money. So the county championship has long been pushed to the fringes. | |
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| The Hundred on 11:29 - Aug 18 with 73 views | Ryorry |
| The Hundred on 09:18 - Aug 18 by Tony73 |
I support any attempt to get new audiences watching and participating in cricket as helps the game top to bottom - only issue I have with it is theres no obvious connection with any team. I follow Essex so can't really see any affiliation with the 100 sides in the same way someone from Birmingham, Manchester or Wales might have |
Lack of any possible affinity is another big negative for me too - the names of the teams are completely disconnected from anything I know - no local or other connection to even remotely hook me in. | |
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| The Hundred on 11:59 - Aug 18 with 54 views | mellowblue |
| The Hundred on 11:29 - Aug 18 by Ryorry |
Lack of any possible affinity is another big negative for me too - the names of the teams are completely disconnected from anything I know - no local or other connection to even remotely hook me in. |
And it is not as if the players, playing for them have any regional affiliation to them either. Jonny Bairstow playing for Welsh Fire is just odd. As a young un, his dad was my second favourite cricketer after Sir Geoffrey. | | | |
| The Hundred on 12:11 - Aug 18 with 42 views | Radlett_blue |
| The Hundred on 11:59 - Aug 18 by mellowblue |
And it is not as if the players, playing for them have any regional affiliation to them either. Jonny Bairstow playing for Welsh Fire is just odd. As a young un, his dad was my second favourite cricketer after Sir Geoffrey. |
I agree that the likes of Bairstow not playing for Yorkshire (or whatever the Leeds franchise is called) is dumb. While I think the team names are naff, there is evidence that kids are wearing replica shirts at 100 games & eventually they may build up some loyalty. However, couldn't this have been done by using some of the existing counties? Warwickshire already play in the blast as Birmingham Bears, while the 100 franchise is called Birmingham Phoenix. | |
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| The Hundred on 12:27 - Aug 18 with 27 views | mellowblue |
| The Hundred on 12:11 - Aug 18 by Radlett_blue |
I agree that the likes of Bairstow not playing for Yorkshire (or whatever the Leeds franchise is called) is dumb. While I think the team names are naff, there is evidence that kids are wearing replica shirts at 100 games & eventually they may build up some loyalty. However, couldn't this have been done by using some of the existing counties? Warwickshire already play in the blast as Birmingham Bears, while the 100 franchise is called Birmingham Phoenix. |
Hate all this fake branding. Strangely Yorkshire were Yorkshire Phoenix for a few years before becoming Vikings and now Birmingham pop up with the Phoenix name. Have they no imagination. Personally I think Warwickshire County should work on it's own brand recognition and loyalty and keep the Warwickshire name in all 3 competitions it plays in and drop the Birmingham. I doubt the franchise owing the Brum Phoenix will like Warwickshire using their own brand identifier. | | | |
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