“The Hundred is an action-packed, unmissable new 100-ball cricket competition that will put you on the edge of your seat.”
So says the official website for The Hundred, a tournament which has polarised opinions long before a ball has been bowled in anger.
To be perfectly honest with you, you could substitute ‘100-ball cricket’ for ‘T20 cricket’ and there’d be no difference.
Think of the Big Bash League. Now lower your expectations.
There are eight teams based in seven cities across England and Wales: Trent Rockets, based in Nottingham, Southern Brave, based in Southampton, Northern Superchargers, based in Leeds, Welsh Fire, based in Cardiff, Oval Invincibles, based at The Oval, Manchester Originals, based in Manchester, London Spirit, based at Lord’s and Birmingham Phoenix, based in Birmingham.
The player draft took place on Sunday night (Monday morning AEDT) as the teams were finalised. Each team was allowed to pick three overseas players and Australian players were well represented. Here’s a list of the baggy greens who will be action:
Dan Christian – Manchester Originals – £60,000 ($113,454)
Nathan Coulter-Nile – Trent Rockets – £75,000 ($141,725)
Aaron Finch – Northern Superchargers – £125,000 ($236,208)
Chris Lynn – Northern Superchargers – £100,000 ($189,090)
Glenn Maxwell – London Spirit – £125,000 ($236,208)
D’Arcy Short – Trent Rockets – £125,000 ($236,208)
Steve Smith – Welsh Fire – £125,000 ($236,208)
Mitchell Starc – Welsh Fire – £125,000 ($236,208)
David Warner – Southern Brave – £125,000 ($236,208)
Adam Zampa – Birmingham Phoenix – £40,000 ($75,586)
Right from the start of the draft, it was apparent that the majority of overseas players would be Australian because Australia have no international fixtures for the duration of the tournament next July and August. Fixtures will be released soon but we do know that the tournament will be scheduled to coincide with the school summer holidays to maximise the family audience the organisers hope to attract.
However, England already has the T20 Blast in the summer holidays, a highly successful tournament which has a cumulative audience of a million spectators. This tournament has only really come about because of the new television deal from 2020 which sees live cricket return to free-to-air television for the first time in 15 years.
The ECB proposed a new city-based T20 competition, which would have had similar franchises to those in The Hundred, but this was rejected on the grounds that it was too similar to the current T20 Blast. And so The Hundred was proposed which was approved mostly, in my cynical opinion, because county cricket clubs need more money.
“How can we doubt anything that’s going to bring us £1.3m every year for the next five years?” Paul Nixon, Leicestershire head coach has said. “That’s a third of our annual budget.”
Joe Root of Trent Rockets (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images for ECB)
These comments come despite Nixon preferring the ECB to concentrate on promoting the existing T20 Blast, which will be marginalised by The Hundred. Leicestershire voted for The Hundred because of the money that will be injected into the county game as a result.
This year, Leicestershire installed cameras in the nets at their cricket academy at a cost of £12,000, which was funded by the volunteer group who runs the tea and cake stall.
As for getting more people interested in the game, all the ECB needed to do was follow the Australian broadcasting model. Tests would then be live on free-to-air television as well as the T20 Blast and the, now former, KIA Women’s Super League.
ODIs and T20Is would be exclusively live on Sky Sports, which are less popular among cricket anoraks. Everyone would be happy, right?
Cricket fans without Sky Sports in the UK should consider themselves lucky that they’re getting two live men’s T20Is, one live women’s T20Is as well as selected live matches from both the men’s and women’s Hundred competitions.
Television schedulers hate Test cricket. They have to make space for five days’ worth of cricket but, more and more, only four days is being played so substitute programming has to be scheduled just in case.
Channel 4 still has never-broadcasted episodes of Countdown which were filmed just in case there was no cricket. Channel 4 also had a habit of being strict about play finishing at 6pm so that they could broadcast The Simpsons in its traditional time-slot.
Hopefully, you get my point; cricket messes up TV schedules.
Regardless of what Tom, Dick and Harry think, The Hundred will still go ahead next summer. The proof will be in the pudding. Either way, English cricket will never be the same again.
Nick
Roar Guru
This is what this is...a pitch for the Olympics. It will start with the Hundred on a normal ground, then the ground dimensions will change so it's played on rectangular grounds. Just watch.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
As I said in the article, the BBC would be skeptical of freeing up five days' worth of programming to show what may be a very uneventful test match. It is what the fans want though but test cricket is what's getting the Sky subscribers in. Even The Ashes, even just having The Ashes live on FTA television would be a start but I'm not sure whether some of the 'smaller' test series would be viable. The saga will continue...
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Not entirely sure what the commercial return on the FTA broadcast rights because it's on the commercial-free BBC. I do agree that it is a mea culpa as the ECB know that they should never have given all the cricket to Sky because the viewing figures and participation rates plummeted. This year's Cricket World Cup final marked the first time a live England match had been broadcast since the 2005 Ashes and that only happened just because England were in the final. About 4 million watched on Channel 4 (an additional 4 million watched on Sky Sports - the most viewers they've had! The mind boggles) It did actually feel as if they'd chosen the players already, especially those in the top price brackets, as they wanted to get the top players before anybody else. Money was definitely a priority as even the pundits analysed the draft by saying 'well, considering he had a base price of £x,000...' As for international competitions, this is just an English thing at the moment. All eyes will be on England to see how successful The Hundred is...
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Rugby sevens works and that's 25 minutes! Cricket could get into the Olympics then! (although we do have women's T20 cricket at the 2022 Commonwealth Games)
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Imagine how many new fans would get involved if the whole match was reduced to 25 minutes!
Jeff
Roar Rookie
How many other domestic sports have 4 variants of the game playing in the same season I wonder? Marketing will say it's "to capture a new audience". Others may say "you've ballsed up the administration and governance of the game and are now scrambling with no clear strategy or idea about what you are doing or even why you exist anymore as a governing body".
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Good pick up. I't didn't register with me, but yes, "revolution"? What? Who? Definite marketing spin, even if unintended. Devolution may be a more appropriate descriptor.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Seriously though, nobody actually knows what's going to happen next year, let alone in five years. It depends on whether the franchise is picked up elsewhere, which at the moment looks unlikely. The only shorter format in existence at the moment is the T10 tournaments - games would then be over in 1-1¼ hours. These are interesting times to be a cricket fan in England...
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Just play a Super Over that's it! :laughing:
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
The first season will definitely have people watching to see what all the fuss is about. It has already received a great deal of coverage across the BBC’s social media platforms and I’d expect the first match to be broadcast in a prime time slot on a Friday night to get maximum viewing figures. It depends on when the T20 Blast is going to be scheduled next year Paul but I think its popularity will be maintained. The T20 Blast finals day at Edgbaston is always one of the highlights of the season! We are definitely in for a clustered season in 2020. The County Championship will further be relegated to the bookends of the season in April/May and August/September where conditions are nowhere near what they would be in a test match held in June/July. This is really annoying as the test team still needs more work done to it as we head into a phase where key players are nearing retirement (e.g Broad and Anderson) The first round of this draft, held a fortnight ago, allowed teams to pick a player with an England test central contract. This was ridiculous because The Hundred directly clashes with the England-Pakistan test series. We’ve already had problems with player fatigue this summer as Ben Stokes actually admitted in the draft coverage on Sky on Sunday night. I’m really uncomfortable with the money side especially as the women are still not getting paid as much as the men. But who’s going to say now to £125k for a month’s work?!
Rellum
Roar Guru
Lets just move to super overs and be done with it. That marketing spin at the top of the article is extremely cringe worthy.
Matt Ellis
Roar Rookie
Stupid format and one i struggle to see the point of. Do see new fans coming to the game because it will be 30 minutes shorter.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Paul, yes though the ECB established both its own devil/demons and exposure to deep blue sea drowning. I wonder what the commercial return is on the FTA broadcast rights? And is this a bit of a mea culpa on behalf of the ECB to "re-deliver" cricket back to the non-paytv cricket viewing supporters? I agree with your other post about caring, in so far as what impact it has on other cricket, especially FC/Tests. It's just such a dumb situation to have arrived at in my view. For me, at best its an attempt by the ECB to rectify their poor strategic planning and execution of the game generally in the UK. Gawd help us if we end up with an international Hundred World Cup. When will that scheduled around the WT20 in 2020 AND 2021 and the ODI World Cup in 2023?! Hopefully it dies a quick death and the ECB gets back to a core business plan centred around the game of cricket, not marketing "opportunities". One comment I heard today was along the lines that the Hundred had locked down the participant players before the rules had been finalised and ratified. Not sure if that is the case ((given the "auction" has only just concluded), but were it to be true, it would speak volumes to the governing body's attitude to the game; not about cricket, just dollars and pounds - as if the short term monetary return is a measure of the games health and long-term success...
Paul
Roar Guru
as long as they don't actually hurt anyone, maybe just make a really loud noise and cover the offending fielder in brightly covered flour. A bit like the Holi festival in India
Jero
Roar Rookie
Bouncing Betty anti-personnel land mines in the outfield. Imagine the suspense.
Paul
Roar Guru
I agree with the sentiment Jeff, but in fairness, the ECB's caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. They ONLY see this as a cash cow, hence the timing, but the lack of emphasis on red ball cricket is certainly hurting the English Test side. That and the lack of free-to-air coverage of Tests, that is Hopefully this fad will only last a season or two, the ECB will get back to free to air coverage of Tests and all will be well.
Paul
Roar Guru
I'd like to see 4 batsmen out on the field, two to actually play the bowling, while the other two do the running! I reckon there could be some really carnage and some pretty funny moments.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
What happens in 5 years time when the Hundred has passed its used-by date as the T20 comp has apparently after just a few years? What will be the next must-create new format? Bowling simultaneously from either end?
Jeff
Roar Rookie
"Fixtures will be released soon but we do know that the tournament will be scheduled to coincide with the school summer holidays to maximise the family audience the organisers hope to attract" Yep, this is the form of cricket that the ECB wants to showcase to the upcoming generations during the prime viewing period of school holidays. Well done ECB on completely abandoning your role as one of the guardians of the game.
Paul
Roar Guru
hi Joshua, I wondering whether the ECB is going to kill off the golden goose by scheduling this additional tournament? I'm sure plenty will go to the first season, just for the novelty value, but once they realize it's not a whole lot different from T20 Blast, will they choose to go to both? I get that the Counties are in favour for monetary reasons, but what about burning out their players? They have a very long season now and surely this will only make things harder for the really good cricketers? And how will so much short form cricket help guys who want to play Test cricket? IMO, this is a step too far but as always, we'll have to wait and see. At least some guys get to make some good money out it!!