Row between ECB and Surrey heats up

SURREY are refusing to back down after the ECB’s embattled chairman Colin Graves threatened to remove them from the list of host venues for the new 100-ball tournament in 2020. Graves said the county had to prove they were ‘100 per cent committed’ to the plans, or the board would ‘go somewhere else’. But Surrey want to hear more about the competition’s make-up and financial model, following mixed messages from the ECB hierarchy. With tensions high at boardroom level after Graves insisted The Hundred was ‘set in stone’ — despite chief executive Tom Harrison’s claim it was just a concept — no one from Surrey would go on the record. But the club are understood to be disappointed that Graves criticised them in public, and want to be convinced of the tournament’s viability before they can support it. As revealed last week by

Sportsmail, Surrey offered to host an experimental 100-ball match in September but the ECB are yet to respond. A meeting at The Oval on June 6 between the board and executives from the eight proposed host venues looks certain to include some frank exchanges. Meanwhile, Surrey’s bewilderment at the uncertainty is shared by large sections of the Professional Cricketers’ Association. Middlesex’s Ollie Rayner spoke for many when he tweeted: ‘Literally pulling my hair out the more all this unravels. By searching for a new audience, they risk losing the current audience. Spend the time and money promoting what is already working globally!’