Hundred coinciding with ‘key risk period’

The England and Wales Cricket Board has acknowledged the launch of The Hundred will coincide with ‘a key risk period’ in the pandemic but remains confident the competition will not derailed by quarantines and cancellations.

The new franchise tournament begins next week, with the Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals kicking off the women’s competition on July 21 and the men’s 24 hours later. The Southern Brave, based at Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl, travel to Nottingham for their first game against Trent Rockets at Trent Bridge on July24.

The Hundred starts against the backdrop of a reopening society, but at a time when Covid-19 cases are surging.

And while that could be good news for attendances – more than 350,000 tickets have been taken up between sales, memberships and giveaways – the number of professional players being forced into isolation is rapidly rising.

England were forced to convene an entirely new squad for the recent one-day series against Pakistan following an outbreak, Kent scrambled to source a second string XI and Derbyshire have had to cancel their last two T20 Blast fixtures due to unavailability.

With limited playing rosters and a tight schedule, circumstances have left The Hundred vulnerable to events but ECB chief executive Tom Harrison believes a combination of health protocols and nimble leadership could help clear the hurdles he now sees as inevitable.

‘We’ve got a huge amount of cricket to get through and it’s too much to hope for that we won’t have any Covid infections…between now and the middle of August we’ve got a key risk period,’ he said.

‘There are risks to undertake and we are doing what we can to mitigate those risks. But I can’t say they don’t exist because they do.

‘I hope we’re in a position where we can cope through protocols we’ve put in place that are designed to cope with small outbreaks or be able to mitigate the impact on entire squads.

‘Throughout this pandemic, through 17 or 18 months of dealing with it, those of us at the coalface know you’re only ever one phone call away from the next massive issue.

‘What I can tell you is we would find a way to cope. But trying to guess what it might be? I’ve given up - there’s always something different we’ve never thought of.’

The ECB believes it is well on course to beat its own target of filling 60 per cent of seats available for Hundred matches, but do not yet have detailed information on how well they have attracted the new, diverse audience they have targeted.

‘Demographic wise, it’s still a bit early,’ said tournament managing director Sanjay Patel.

‘Despite that, we are over 350,000 tickets. I’ve just been blown away by the demand.’