Tons of doubts over ‘The Hundred’

TOM HARRISON, the personable chief executive of the ECB, said last week he wanted to do some “myth-busting” about the new cricket competition to be launched in the summer of 2020 which is likely to consist of 100 balls per side.

What he couldn’t tell us was the official name of the tournament, or what the teams will be called. The fine details of how ‘The Hundred’ will be played are also still vague.

The ECB are spending £180million, a monumental sum for cricket, on this new tournament and yet secrecy abounds.

Why? Well, that’s because of the incredible risk they are taking in creating a fourth version of cricket rather than the sensible option of a high-profile English T20 city league to mirror the success of the IPL in India and the BBL in Australia. “Clearly it’s a format which throws different challenges on to the table for cricketers,” said Harrison (left). “I think new players will really want to test their ability in a format which we think will provide more pressure at key moments in games. It will be a very good training ground for international T20.”

Sorry, you can’t have it both ways. Either it’s different and better, or it’s just a training ground for the real thing.

There, in a nutshell, is the folly.

T20 works. T20 is blitzkrieg cricket. T20 is incredibly popular – and the task for the ECB is to capitalise on that rather than be revolutionaries. JO KONTA refused to complain about the cruelty of being forced to start a Grand Slam tennis match at half past midnight, and we can admire her diplomacy.

The fact remains that it was a scandal for which the organisers of the Australian Open should be ashamed. Britain’s No1 (left) lost in three sets against Garbine Muguruza, the contest ending at 3.12am with only a couple of hundred insomniac spectators watching.

Muguruza gave the most eloquent condemnation when asked afterwards what she was going to do now.

“Go for breakfast,” was her reply.