Victory is perfect platform to launch Hundred, insists Graves

England’s World Cup win provides the perfect moment to launch the Hundred and capitalise on cricket’s new audience, according to Colin Graves, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket board.

The inception of the new competition has been dogged by criticism and controversy, but the EBC is ploughing £200million into making it work as it desperately looks to attract a new audience.

But it comes at a price. The county 50-over competition will be played at the same time as the Hundred. The best county and overseas players will be appearing in the Hundred, making the 50-over game a secondary competition.

Graves confirmed there were plans to try to make the 50-over competition a “festival” played at outgrounds.

“This [World Cup win] is a launchpad for taking the game forward. That is how I see it. The Hundred is the next part of it. When that comes off, it will all come together,” he said. “This is a great platform to launch something new with a lot of razzmatazz. We have got the timing right. A lot of people said it was wrong, but we got it spot on.

“People say it [50-over competition] is going to be downgraded. We are not saying that. There is still going to be a 50-over competition. We are going to relaunch it as something special. It is not just going to be a Mickey Mouse competition.”

The decision by Sky Sports to share coverage of the World Cup final with Channel 4 gave English cricket live exposure on free-to-air television for the first time since 2005. The next England men’s cricket on free-to-air will be shown on the BBC when England play a Twenty20 match against Australia next summer. Eight matches in the Hundred will be shown by the BBC.

“Getting it on free-to-air was brilliant,” said Graves. “Sky could have easily said no, but they didn’t. It took a while to persuade them, but it was for the right reasons and they saw the value of it. We ticked a lot of boxes, but we still have a lot more to do going forward.”