New cricket series is a go
London – English cricket takes a step into the unknown with the launch of the Hundred, a brand new 100 balls-per-side format, today.
Cricket already has several established professional formats at domestic and international level – first-class games, which includes five-day Tests, 50 overs-per-side one-dayers and Twenty20 matches.
But even though Twenty20 was pioneered as a professional sport in England, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are convinced an even shorter format is needed to attract a new, younger and more ethnically diverse audience.
The Hundred does away with the traditional six-ball over, although as former England captain Michael Vaughan tweeted: “A reminder that the Hundred will be just a game of cricket..New rules..A few less deliveries.. but the best players playing against the best..!!! What’s not to like.. It’s only cricket..I don’t get all the hatred.”
But rather than the format, it is the potential knock-on effects of the Hundred that worry many within English cricket.
Rather than rely on the current 18 county set-up, the Hundred will feature eight specially created franchise teams – all featuring men’s and women’s sides.
Indeed a tournament which one critic has billed as an “attempt to reduce the number of counties by stealth”, will begin with a women’s match, between the Oval Invincibles and the Manchester Originals at the Oval.
The Hundred was meant to have started in 2020 but its launch was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
With Covid-19 still a factor, many of the big name overseas players the ECB hoped would take part have pulled out, with Australia’s David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada and Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi missing and Australia’s Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy from the women’s competition.
And with several first-choice players now diverted to the Hundred while the existing county programme continues, there are fears another outbreak could play havoc with the schedule
The ECB was accused of being patronising when it said the Hundred was aimed at “mums and kids”, the inference being cricket was too complicated for them to understand. –