CELEBRITY BIG BATTING
Counties stunned by 100-ball plan
AnDreW strauss has defended the eCB’s new 100ball competition, as details emerged of last Thursday’s meeting in which stunned county bosses learned of the controversial plans to ditch the Twenty20 format. The board said the proposals were received enthusiastically, but one official in the room told Sportsmail: ‘There was a moment of silence when the idea was given a grand reveal, then Yorkshire and notts filled the gap with gushing comments.’
The official went on: ‘There was no vote and the press release was issued post haste. Many were simply relieved the T20 Blast would remain unchallenged, but reality began to dawn when the public reaction started to flood through on social media.
‘ There is no future for this format unless IPL and Big Bash adopt it and they won’t. BBC2 are perhaps hoping this will become Celebrity Big Batting.
‘When did the eCB decide that T20 is broken and needed fixing? It has never been discussed outside the eCB marketing cabal.’
But strauss, the board’s director of england cricket, insisted to the BBC that The Hundred — the tournament’s working title — is aimed at ‘ people that aren’t traditional cricket fans’ and said the target demographic was ‘mums and kids in the summer holidays’. He added: ‘We want to make the game as simple as possible for them to understand. If you imagine the countdown from 100 to zero and the runs going up, that’s a pretty simple way of playing.’
Meanwhile, James Vince missed the chance to make his case for Test selection against Pakistan next month when he fell for 33 as Hampshire struggled to avoid defeat by surrey in County Championship Division One. Vince, with only three fifties in his 22 Test innings, was lbw to 19-yearold off-spinner Amar Virdi, who also dismissed Hashim Amla.
Another surrey starlet, 20-yearold batsman Ollie Pope, hit a superb 145 in only his seventh first-class game.
But Lancashire opener Haseeb Hameed’s difficult start to the season continued. He was bowled by Jamie Porter for a single as essex won by 31 runs.