New 100-ball cricket match waste of time and money, says Blofeld

THE England and Wales Cricket Board is wasting its time and money trying to win over people who do not even like the game, claims legendary BBC broadcaster Henry Blofeld.

Plans for a 100-ball version unveiled this year are, according to Andrew Strauss, the England director of cricket, aimed at “people who aren’t traditional cricket fans”.

But Blofeld believes the idea is absurd. The much-loved voice of Test Match Special (TMS), who recently retired after more than 40 years in the commentary box, said: “I don’t understand this 100-ball thing. We’ve got Twenty20. Why are we trying to make the game appeal to people who basically don’t like it?”

Blofeld also told an audience at the Hay Festival that money was threatening the integrity of the game.

“Cricket was the last game to be taken over by money … and when that happens greed becomes almost a prevailing influence. It affects players to some extent; it affects committee rooms to a greater extent.” He added: “What goes on at the top in the minds of administrators worldwide worries me.

“Because cricket was the last game to be taken over by money, it was always the poor relation; never crossed the Atlantic, so perhaps it stands to reason.”

The 78-year-old admits he left Test Match Special because the programme had changed. “When you’ve been doing a job for nearly 50 years, you suddenly realise you stick out a bit like a sore thumb and it’s not quite the home you thought it was,” said the man celebrated for embroidering his commentaries with gentle soliloquies about pigeons, fluffy clouds and London buses. As regards why he chose to quit the TMS microphone for good, he added: “There were lots of different reasons. God knows, I enjoyed it, but then I thought, in the end, best to go when people might say, ‘Why are you going?’ rather than, ‘Why the bloody hell haven’t you gone yet?’”