England’s struggles prompt Hundred rethink
Plans were last night being drawn up to stop the Hundred wrecking England’s attempt to become a winning Test team again.
The England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed it was looking at ways to avoid a repeat of a summer schedule in which the County Championship took a six-week-plus break to make way for the new limited-overs competition, at a time when England were trying to prepare for and compete in their Test
series against India. The lack of firstclass red-ball cricket in that period has been heavily criticised amid England’s struggles in the first two Tests, which culminated in last week’s stunning collapse at Lord’s.
Speaking to mark the end of the Hundred’s first edition, ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said: “It’s something that’s been highlighted this year because we have had issues like losing the Test match at Lord’s and because we’ve had a difficult start against India. We have to get to a place where we provide opportunities for players to get into good form and players to continue to play red-ball cricket when out of form.”
The ECB has long argued the Hundred was necessary to save Test cricket, and Harrison continued to do so after the governing body published figures it said proved that the competition had attracted new fans to the game. Harrison said these would be drawn to its longer formats.
Women’s matches drew total crowds of 267,000 – almost double that for any women’s cricket event in the world. Much of the credit has been apportioned to most women’s and men’s matches being doubleheaders, something the ECB was forced into because of the pandemic.
Harrison also said there would be a narrowing of the respective salaries, starting at £24,000 for men and £3,600 for women.
Harrison and a group of senior executives could share a projected £2.1 million bonus despite making 62 job cuts last year in response to the pandemic. According to The Guardian, a five-year Long-term Incentive Plan – a “retention tool for key senior leaders” – is due to be settled in cash in 2022.