Surrey offer to host 100-ball match for ECB

SURREY have offered to hold an experimental 100-ball format match at the Oval in September — but are awaiting a decision from the ECB. Confusion continues to surround The Hundred, with ECB chief executive Tom Harrison appearing to backtrack on controversial plans to launch the competition in 2020, describing it as a ‘concept’ during Tuesday’s meeting with players at Edgbaston. And while many county administrations remain sceptical that the tournament would succeed in attracting a new audience to cricket, they are also relieved that it will not cannibalise the successful Twenty20 Blast. Surrey wrote to the ECB a couple of weeks ago with their offer, which the county regard as a chance for the English game to road-test the new format. They heard back only yesterday, with the ball now in the court of Sanjay Patel, the ECB’s chief commercial officer. The identity of the teams was not discussed, but Surrey believe ticket sales for floodlit games work well in September, having successfully staged a Help For Heroes Twenty20 game that month three years ago. Relations between Surrey and the board have been strained in recent times, with club chairman Richard Thompson causing anger at Lord’s two years ago when, talking to Sportsmail, he criticised plans for a city-based Twenty20 tournament. Meanwhile, Darren Lehmann has landed a job as the new assistant coach at Cricket Australia’s national performance programme only weeks after he resigned as coach of the national side in the aftermath of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal.