| The Hundred 09:15 - Aug 17 with 3023 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 18:03 - Aug 18 with 287 views | mellowblue |
That's interesting, I wonder if he keeps quiet about it. | | | |
| The Hundred on 19:05 - Aug 18 with 259 views | Churchman |
| 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. |
I agree Ryorry. Lack of affinity is a downside. I can’t just ‘pick a team’. I suppose because one or two Kent players (as I’ve lived in Kent a long time, I’ve always followed them) are playing for Oval Invincibles I lean towards them. But only slightly.
But with regard to it being cricket that people who don’t like cricket, I have to disagree. It’s just another format. Financially, cricket needs all the help it can get. Go to a county game and more often than not the only people there are a few old codgers, old codgers like me going for a chat, snooze and beer(s).
20/20 - great. 50 over - great, 4 day and test matched - great. All offer different things and that can only be good. The players’ calendar needs sorting though. |  | | |
| The Hundred on 19:26 - Aug 18 with 246 views | Ryorry |
| The Hundred on 16:51 - Aug 18 by ArnoldMoorhen |
The 2005 Ashes captured the Public imagination in part because they were broadcast free-to-view on Channel 4, who also put considerable effort into revolutionising broadcasting of cricket int this country. They made cricket fun and maybe even cool. They even paid an unemployed actor to dress up as WG Grace and hype up the crowd. (Comedy fans: do you know who that was?)
Then the fcking ECB sold their soul to Sky and took Test cricket off free-to-view television. The most stupid decision imaginable. |
^This^. |  |
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| The Hundred on 20:55 - Aug 18 with 218 views | mellowblue |
| The Hundred on 13:05 - Aug 18 by stonojnr |
You do know the boundaries are smaller for this ? even if it gets tonked into the stand its passing fielders with no chance for them to catch it, or put doubt in the batsmen mind they might mistime it and slew it wrong.
It's like I saw they had a MLB Home run competition in the US. Now normally in a game of baseball only the very best hit the ball consistently or score home runs in game situations. In this competition with no fielders and basically just a machine setup for batting practice, they could hit every ball and were all hitting multiple home runs in their 3min slots, if they played like that in real games you'd see basketball type scores.
The point being there's no skill required if you tip all the odds in the guy with the bats favour. |
Talking of bats; the expensive bats produced now have sweet spots to die for. Much better than what big hitters of their day like Sir Viv Richards would have had. And as the cricketers have muscled up, the bats used are heavier and can impart a lot more force compared to the wand that David Gower would have used. Professional cricket bats can cost over £1000. | | | |
| The Hundred on 22:18 - Aug 18 with 173 views | Charlie_pl_baxter |
| 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. |
Worth saying that the non host counties are set to receive a share of £275m from the sale. The host counties are getting far more but this could protect the smaller counties as well. |  |
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| The Hundred on 22:52 - Aug 18 with 161 views | BlueForYou |
| The Hundred on 09:35 - Aug 18 by Ryorry |
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. |
Their Cricket is in a similar mess with the Sheffield Shield played early & late in the season to accommodate the Big Bash. |  | | |
| The Hundred on 07:39 - Aug 19 with 97 views | Radlett_blue |
| The Hundred on 22:52 - Aug 18 by BlueForYou |
Their Cricket is in a similar mess with the Sheffield Shield played early & late in the season to accommodate the Big Bash. |
The Sheffield Shield is contested by only 6 teams. This makes sense in Australia where the population is concentrated in a few coastal cities & it makes fixture planning so much easier.
We still shouldn't be trying to support 18 first class counties, though. |  |
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| The Hundred on 07:57 - Aug 19 with 86 views | BlueForYou |
| The Hundred on 07:39 - Aug 19 by Radlett_blue |
The Sheffield Shield is contested by only 6 teams. This makes sense in Australia where the population is concentrated in a few coastal cities & it makes fixture planning so much easier.
We still shouldn't be trying to support 18 first class counties, though. |
Why not? Those County sides bring Cricket to their localities & bring & develop young cricketers into the game who otherwise would struggle to get a chance. It also helps a lot of young international players. It's the whole bedrock of the game. We have 92 professional football teams in England, but we can't support 18 Cricket teams?? | | | |
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| The Hundred on 08:58 - Aug 19 with 68 views | Radlett_blue |
| The Hundred on 07:57 - Aug 19 by BlueForYou |
Why not? Those County sides bring Cricket to their localities & bring & develop young cricketers into the game who otherwise would struggle to get a chance. It also helps a lot of young international players. It's the whole bedrock of the game. We have 92 professional football teams in England, but we can't support 18 Cricket teams?? |
No other country tries to support over 100 full time professional football clubs either, which is why so many of them go bust & reform. Most of them aren't financially viable, principally because they're paying too much out in wages.
The advantage of having fewer First Class counties is that limited resources would be better concentrated in counties with better facilities & the quality of competition would be higher. [Post edited 19 Aug 8:59]
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| The Hundred on 09:08 - Aug 19 with 60 views | BlueForYou |
| The Hundred on 08:58 - Aug 19 by Radlett_blue |
No other country tries to support over 100 full time professional football clubs either, which is why so many of them go bust & reform. Most of them aren't financially viable, principally because they're paying too much out in wages.
The advantage of having fewer First Class counties is that limited resources would be better concentrated in counties with better facilities & the quality of competition would be higher. [Post edited 19 Aug 8:59]
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But you then lose the localisation of support, & anyway quality of competition tends to be higher in Division One of the County Championship, whilst Division Two offers relegated sides or those with limited resources the chance of competition. Otherwise you end up with a ringfenced league with the danger of mid to end of season matches having no meaning! | | | |
| The Hundred on 09:12 - Aug 19 with 57 views | Radlett_blue |
| The Hundred on 09:08 - Aug 19 by BlueForYou |
But you then lose the localisation of support, & anyway quality of competition tends to be higher in Division One of the County Championship, whilst Division Two offers relegated sides or those with limited resources the chance of competition. Otherwise you end up with a ringfenced league with the danger of mid to end of season matches having no meaning! |
Fair point; there is no perfect solution. The biggest issues IMO are the size of the international calendar (driven by a need to fulfil a Sky contract) plus having both the 20/20 & the 100. Unfortunately, neither will be easy to fix. | |
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| The Hundred on 10:20 - Aug 19 with 35 views | mellowblue |
| The Hundred on 09:12 - Aug 19 by Radlett_blue |
Fair point; there is no perfect solution. The biggest issues IMO are the size of the international calendar (driven by a need to fulfil a Sky contract) plus having both the 20/20 & the 100. Unfortunately, neither will be easy to fix. |
I am not blaming Sky for the test quota. That quota would need to be filled to satisfy us traditional cricket lovers anyway. 4-5 tests a summer is not too much to expect. The problem is the franchise cricket squeezing the only available slot for test cricket. IPL occupies May and ends in early June. You have to allow 2-3 weeks for R and R and to get some long form cricket practice in, so there is approx 6 weeks until the Hundred franchise kicks off. Which is not much time for a 5 match test series. They managed to fit in a t20 series with the Windies as well in early June. It is tough on multi format cricketers.
You can understand why cricketers are specializing in short form cricket, good money obviously but also the easier schedule. | | | |
| The Hundred on 10:25 - Aug 19 with 29 views | ArnoldMoorhen |
| The Hundred on 22:18 - Aug 18 by Charlie_pl_baxter |
Worth saying that the non host counties are set to receive a share of £275m from the sale. The host counties are getting far more but this could protect the smaller counties as well. |
In the same way that Premier League solidarity payments to League Clubs work to keep the lower League clubs life support machine on, but deliberately perpetuate the gulf between established Premier League Clubs and the rest. | | | |
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