The Hundred

George Garton on fire for the Brave. 3 for 15 in powerplay. 

Test cricket hasn't suddenly become 'a shambles' since The Hundred was introduced. It's been going downhill in this country since red ball players lost the opportunity to play enough county cricket in preparation for test matches. That's a question of timetabling. However, if white ball cricket becomes even more dominant in future then test cricket could well be undermined further. 

Critics of The Hundred fear what it might do to the future of red ball cricket - quite rightly. But do these critics stop to evaluate the benefits of the Hundred? IMO, many are blinded to the entertainment quality, because they've decided that they don't like it - even if they haven't watched it. So, there are 2 contradictory issues here.

Most things in life evolve over time, including cricket. If something you like evolves in such a way that you begin to go off it, then you can become semi-detached, or even completely detached from it. What you can't do is insist that it remains static because 'that's how I like it'. You either evolve with it, or you become detached. The gradual fall in membership numbers at Sussex (and probably at certain other counties) reflects those who've detached themselves from the game. On the other hand, white ball attendances have grown as people are attracted by the entertainment and excitement provided by the shorter formats. Cricket has evolved, and is now televised to an extent unheard of before white ball cricket was introduced. The Hundred is the next evolutionary step IMO. Cricket needs as much support as it can get, and the future can't be determined by county members. The amount that members contribute financially to the game is insignificant in the overall context. 

That's about the size of it Flash. I was against it, but firstly it's been very entertaining and secondly, and because of that, it's here to stay. They've got a lot of things right with this, it's been a huge success, the best domestic tournament I've ever seen. It'll do wonders for participation amongst youth. One area they need to look at is full participation of England players. It's only a three week tournament so it has to be do-able.

Not happy about the teams of the tournament though. Not a single Brave bowler in the best eleven. Garton was phenomenal in the two biggest games, that should go down very well with England. Mills and Garton should be in the tournament team and the England T20 team.

There's a way to really help with all this heavy scheduling I think. Shorten the Blast to the same size as the Hundred and play games more frequently. Every other day - it's only 40 overs, tops. We could have both tournaments done and dusted in six weeks between about mid July and late August.

Up the Braves, I guess.

A couple of things I’d like to see adopted from the 100 for the Blast are 1. On field penalties for slow over rate. 2. Incoming batter is on strike regardless of whether they crossed or not, reward the bowler.

One of the big issues has been that certain franchises have basically been taken over by counties. This was one of Sussex's concerns before they agreed to the contest/bribe money and something that has unfortunately played out. Compare the number of Hampshire players in the Southern Brave squad (even before the Dawson injury) to the number of Notts players in the Trent Rockets squad or the amount of Surrey Players in the invincible squad.

There is a massive conflict of interest here. The ECB clearly tried to avoid it by getting in overseas/external coaches for all the teams but the support staff was largely made up of county representatives. Chapple is both the head coach of Lancs and on the staff of the Manchester Franchise. I have heard there was also skullduggery with Topley's draft pick being influenced by the Surrey signing ("we'll give you a certain slot in return signing") which is really bad. If it's going to go down this route the ECB should just add another side then have all of the franchises be formal partnerships between 2 counties rather than allowing Lancs, Surrey and Notts to take over the franchises at their grounds.

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised at the way The Hundred was so professionally presented. The Blast looks a bit haphazard by comparison, and it'll never get the same audiences if it's played over a 3-4 week period - it won't have the benefit of the school holidays. I'm not sure what to suggest.  

Yes, I have, actually. See my 'signature' line, below.