The Hundred

And all teams promote crap unhealthy snacks via sponsorship of said snacks on their playing shirts. I do enjoy the odd bag of hoola hoops, but refuse to support the Welsh fire. If only 1 of the teams was sponsored by Harveys.

If the Hundred was really the great asset that could be milked indefinitely to sustain county cricket then why is the ECB so keen to
sell its stake?

I am not sure what you mean?

The Daily Telegraph cricket writer, Tim Wigmore, explains the situation very well in this article posted in July. I strongly recommend
you read it.

archive.md/MJgym


The important takeaways include: -

: County cricket debt across the 18 counties is estimated to be nearly £200 million.

: The ECB's aim is to secure the future of the county game for generations to come by selling stakes in the 100 with the hope of raising
up to £500 million.

: The counties who are cutting off their nose to spite their face are refusing, in some cases, to sell any of their shares in the tournament.

: This has led to some potential investors of the 100 to query the economics including one representative from an Indian Premier League
side lamenting that “the numbers don’t stack up” and "are delusional.”

: Expectation is growing that, unless there are dramatic changes and the counties become more amenable to sell part of their shares,
the ECB will fall several hundred million pounds short of its previous hopes, leaving the game’s financial crisis in the country unresolved.

: Meanwhile, the hoped for plans for the sale will see the ECB hand 51 percent of the eight teams to the host county, where the remaining
49 per cent would be sold to private investors, with the host county welcome to sell as much or as little of their share as they please.

: One figure estimated that a 49 per cent stake of a Hundred team would only be worth about 25 per cent of a complete stake – so, if a
side was hypothetically valued at £100 million, they would only be prepared to pay £25 million for a 49 per cent share.

: So far, investors report that only a couple of Hundred teams have indicated an openness to selling any of their 51 per cent stakes. One
source suggested that if private investors bought in the region of 60-70 per cent of teams they would gain sufficient control while also
ensuring that counties still had a financial stake in the sides.

: The top salary band for players in the Hundred is currently £125,000, with a £10,000 top-up bonus for captains. Investors believe that
salaries for top players need to reach £300,000 per year to guarantee that the world’s leading talent is available for the competition and
realise the ECB’s ambitions of making the Hundred the second-best short-format league in the world.

: Australia captain Pat Cummins, who has never played in the Hundred, recently signed a four-year contract with Major League cricket
where financial incentives are greater.

: Some potential investors own franchises in multiple leagues and would be keen to guarantee that these players could appear for their
Hundred team. This would entail a shift in player recruitment rules, enabling Hundred sides to contract players independently of the draft.

: With no current prospect of India international players appearing in the Hundred, the total availability of English cricketers is a major
priority for potential investors. Prospective ones would like a window cleared for the competition.

Therefore, a lot needs to be resolved between the ECB and the counties, first. Given this money, however much it may end up, could save
the ECB from having to reduce 18 teams to 12, I am amazed that the 18 are not onboard. Perhaps, the TMGs don’t care that Sussex and
five others may disappear. In a way, this benefits them and why possibly they are dragging their feet?

I can’t get excited in the 100 because I don’t care who wins.
Also, on a sporting level, it is an unnecessary format.
It is a vanity project. Always was.
It seems the drip down of the finances is helping smaller counties though, so we need it on that level, eventhough it simultaneously strangles us. How depressing.
Good luck to all the Sussex players who have been signed up though.

Is it a vanity project though? Aside from the snobbish and elitist claims that it's not proper cricket and not for real cricket fans the other thing I often read is "What's wrong with the Blast, the ECB just need to promote that better". The Blast suffers from a load of problems though which the Hundred has aimed to rectify:

• There's no equivalent women's tournament which makes promoting the women's game hard.
  
• It doesn't attract many of the biggest overseas names, the ECB saw the runaway success of the IPL with the biggest names queuing up to play and hoped to emulate that. Look at Sussex - Hughes and McAndrew are good honest pros but have little to none international experience, not like having names like Warner or Starc turning out for you. Sadly the Hundred seems to have failed on the big name front with a lot of overseas players staying away.
• The Blast is firmly established as the beery lads format of choice. I'm all for a drink and and good natured quip at an opposition players expense but most of the time you just get to listen to some drunken halfwit hurling abuse at the nearest fielder. It's just cringey and not something I'd want to bring young kids to while the Hundred aims to be much more family friendly.

Agree, so if it isnt a success change it into a formatthat does work or bin it and start again.

I agree with you lab1.

What is the point of the 50 over competition, after England won the World Cup on home soil back in 2019. Wasn't that the main
reason the ECB changed the format from 40 to 50 overs, anyway? Imho, 40 overs is more popular. There isn't that dreary 10 overs
in the middle for each side, when supporters fall asleep, and where teams don't know whether to stick or twist.  

Today, the competition has become the runt of the 100 tournament. Just a chance to try out 2nd XI players or those not good enough
to be selected. Attendances overall are way down compared to T20 or the 100. So, knock it on the head. It clogs up the season.

For example, the Southern Brave 100 home games at the Rose, Ageas, Utilita (what is it presently called?)... Bowl, have either been
close to or fully sold out and this is a stadium with a capacity of 25,000 people. It offers great value. Both a Women's and Men's game,
lots of razzmatazz, and plenty of thrills and spills for the youngsters.

A type of BOGOF. 

The next problem being, if you only have three formats, how do you now space them through the summer, to satisfy supporters'
needs.

That is the difficulty as lab1 points out, the scheduling, when both the T20 and 100 due to their popularity, must be played in the
middle of the summer.

Hence the comment about the scheduling, if you arent interested in a certain format you dont watch it. Maybe a shorter version of the 50 over comp while the hundreds on with a maximum of say 5 games with a semi final and a final so travel doesnt become the issue it has. Or simply as mentioned before a 2nd tier hundred competition for the remaining counties with 2 groups of 5 leading into a knockout stage.