Eoin: Hundred can save game

EOIN MORGAN has warned that cricket will die if it refuses to change — and has backed the ECB’s controversial plans for a new 100-ball tournament in 2020. Morgan was one of three cricketers — along with England women’s captain Heather Knight and players’ union boss Daryl Mitchell — consulted by the board over The Hundred, which will replace a proposed Twenty20 competition. And while the lack of a wider consultation process has angered many, Morgan says the new format is necessary if the ECB are to ‘grow the game’. ‘It sounds

different,’ he said. ‘It sounds like something is there to create a really good, viable product to sell to people outside of cricket. ‘And that is the point of it — we’re trying to grow the game. Cricket participation levels have been going down, and we need to do something different to change the sport. If we don’t change anything for a long period of time, the sport will die.’ Morgan, who took part in a T10 tournament in the UAE

during the winter, denied The Hundred would turn fans off cricket, adding: ‘People hate change, and it would be very easy for us to sit here and say, “Test cricket is great, 50 overs is OK”. But T20 is something we just don’t talk about. It’s going through the roof and everybody wants to watch it, yet we don’t do anything about it.’ Morgan, England’s white-ball captain, admitted he was consulted late in the process — a reflection of the ECB’s fear of leaks. But the board’s failure to run the plans past more than three players remains a bone of contention among many professionals.